Yahoo – AFP,
Stuart Williams, March 4, 2016
The lifeless
body of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, found on a Turkish beach,
became the symbol
of the refugee crisis (AFP Photo)
|
Istanbul
(AFP) - A Turkish court on Friday sentenced two Syrian people smugglers to more
than four years in prison over the drowning of Aylan Kurdi, the toddler who
became a symbol of Europe's refugee crisis when his lifeless body washed up on
a Turkish beach.
The court
in the resort town of Bodrum found Syrian nationals Muwafaka Alabash, 36, and
Asem Alfrhad, 35, guilty of trafficking migrants and sentenced them to four
years and two months, the Dogan News Agency said.
Pictures of
three-year-old Aylan Kurdi
face down in the sand on a Turkish beach
triggered
global anguish (AFP Photo/
Nilufer Demir)
|
Pictures of
the three-year-old Syrian toddler face down in the sand on a Turkish beach
triggered global anguish and the public outcry, to a certain extent, spurred
the EU into greater action in the crisis.
He drowned
after his family decided in early September to make the risky journey across
the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece in an overloaded open boat.
Aylan's
mother Rihana and brother Ghaleb, four, and two others also died in the same
accident as they attempted the crossing from Bodrum to the island of Kos.
Aylan's
father Abdullah Kurdi had been implicated in the tragedy, with Turkish
authorities originally accusing him in absentia of being responsible for the
deaths and driving the boat at the time of the disaster.
However,
prosecutors had dropped the legal proceedings against Kurdi, who now lives
outside of Turkey, at an earlier stage in the trial.
'The true
organiser'
A lawyer
for the defendants, Kemal Ertugrul, said the pair would not have been jailed if
they were Turkish and reaffirmed the past accusations against Abdullah Kurdi.
Abdullah
Kurdi, father of drowned
three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, stands in
Aylan's room in
Kobane, Syria, on
September 6, 2015 (AFP Photo/
Yasin Akgul)
|
"Nobody
is looking for him. All the witnesses and those who experienced the disaster
said the organiser is Abdullah Kurdi. Therefore I will file a criminal
complaint against him."
Asem
Alfrhad said during the trial Abdullah Kurdi was the "the real criminal
here... who became a hero on television but did not even testify."
His family,
many of whom are now based in Canada, had previously rubbished similar
allegations against him broadcast by foreign television as
"ridiculous".
Kurdi
became a prominent figure through media interviews following Aylan's death and
delivered an "alternative" Christmas message in Britain in 2015,
aired on a rival channel at the same time as Queen Elizabeth II's traditional
address.
'Break
the business model'
The
sentencing of the two men came as European Union head Donald Tusk was to meet
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks on how to stem the massive
flow of migrants into Europe.
Speaking in
Istanbul the day earlier, Tusk had expressed determination to "break the
business model of smugglers" floating the idea that migrants could be
shipped back to Turkey from Greece.
Experts
agree that smashing the rackets of smugglers who have operated in Turkey for
months with apparent impunity is key to solving the crisis.
According
to the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration,
125,819 people have crossed the Aegean from Turkey to Greece so far this year
(AFP Photo/Aris Messinis)
|
"The
EU has seen few improvements in Turkey's control of the vast mafia networks
that channel refugees," wrote Marc Pierini, visiting scholar at Carnegie
Europe, estimating traffickers earned at least 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion)
in 2015.
Turkey has
become the major hub for Syrian, Afghan, Iraqi, Eritrean and other refugees and
migrants seeking to undertake the risky crossing to the European Union in a
flow that has caused huge alarm across the continent.
The Turkish
government struck a deal with the EU in November to halt the flow of refugees,
in return for three billion euros ($3.2 billion) in financial assistance.
But the
deal and wintry weather in the Mediterranean do not appear to have deterred the
migrants, with people still arriving on the Greek islands daily.
According
to the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration,
125,819 people have crossed the Aegean from Turkey to Greece so far this year.
But it said arrivals have been below average so far in March, with 2,771
recorded.
Soul-searching: heart-rending photo of drowned toddler shows cost of Europe's migrant crisis http://t.co/z4jFW5aF3v pic.twitter.com/vkle4cbLU8— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 3, 2015
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