‘Hopefully we’ll celebrate Christmas together’
Aunt of Alan Kurdi prepares for her brother and his family to move from Syria to Canada
When Tima Kurdi got a call this fall from the government asking her to resubmit her application to sponsor her brother, Mohammed, his wife and five children, she kept asking herself: Why?
“I was crying,” she told the Star on Friday from her home in Coquitlam, B.C. “To be honest, I was like, ‘Why now? Why not then? Yes, I’m still saving lives and seven people, and eventually those kids will go to school, but at the same time, why not those little boys? Why?’ ”
The little boys Kurdi was referring to are her nephews, 3-year-old Alan Kurdi and 5-year-old Ghaleb, sons of Kurdi’s brother, Abdullah. They died along with their mother in a desperate attempt to reach Europe in September.
The photo of Alan’s body washed up on a Turkish beach sparked international outrage and drew the world’s attention to the plight of Syrian refugees like no other image before it.
Tima Kurdi had applied earlier this year to sponsor Mohammed and his family, but was rejected. Had the application been accepted, the plan was to then apply to sponsor Abdullah, his wife and their little boys.
Now, Kurdi, who lives with her husband and son in a suburban area outside Vancouver, is busy buying beds and toys and emptying out rooms to make way for her seven relatives.
She said she was recently told that her application had been approved, but that there is still a lot of paperwork to get through. Mohammed, who lives in Germany, cleared the necessary medical and security checks, as did the rest of his family, who still live in a basement in Istanbul, Kurdi said.
“The department has communicated with the Kurdi family. We will continue to do so with respect to their application. We can confirm that the processing of their application is proceeding well,” said Citi- zenship and Immigration spokesman Rémi Larivière.
As for Abdullah, Kurdi said he has no plans to go anywhere anytime soon, although she still hopes to convince him to come to Canada one day. He is currently living in Erbil, in northern Iraq, having been invited to stay there by the Kurdish government. He helps refugees by delivering food and school supplies, Kurdi said, adding her brother hopes to one day open a charity in his sons’ names to help other children.
“I feel sorry for my brother. He’s all alone,” she said. “He keeps saying, ‘I don’t want to leave. My life is nothing.’ ”
But Kurdi’s brother has also expressed to her his joy at seeing so many refugees now being accepted by countries around the world.
“He keeps saying that of course it hurts, as a father, but at the same time, he loves it when he sees those refugees getting attention and hope from everywhere, because for the last five years, they’ve been crying out for hope and nobody helped them,” Kurdi said.
She doesn’t get much sleep these days, and spends many evenings crying. But Kurdi also tries to remain focused on the future. She’s finalizing plans to buy a hair salon, which she wants to name Kurdi Hair Design, and said it would be her dream to have Mohammed, a barber, work with her.
Kurdi will also make sure Mohammed’s children — who range in age from about 16 to a 5-month-old baby — get into school. The children have not been in a classroom since the family fled Damascus in 2012, she said.
Her teenage nephew, Chergo, has been working up to 12 hours a day ironing clothes to support the family. His older sister is also working at sewing garments.
“When I talk to my nephew, it’s really emotional,” Kurdi said. “He says to me, ‘The feeling inside of me is that I am a little boy, but when I show it to my parents, I am the man, because I don’t want to hurt them. If I don’t go to work, it’s going to be tough for them.’ ”
“It makes me cry,” she said. “I said to him, ‘This is your last day at work. I hope you’re going to come here, you’re going to learn English and we’re going to put you in school.’ ”
Kurdi doesn’t know when the family will actually arrive, but she’s hoping that it will be within the next few weeks.
“I am really hoping before Christmas,” she said. “They will be here, and hopefully we’ll celebrate Christmas together.”