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Relatives of the drowned Syrian toddler Alan Kurdi urge Italy to release NGO rescue ships

Civil rescue ships, the Alan Kurdi and Aita Mari which saved close to 200 lives at Easter, have been detained in Sicily for over a month

RELATIVES of the Syrian toddler whose body was photographed lying face down on a Turkish beach in 2015 have urged the Italian government to free two NGO refugee rescue ships, a month after they were seized.

The photograph of two-year-old Alan Kurdi became one of the defining images of the so-called “refugee crisis” that year and led to a brief period of concern for people attempting to cross into Europe.

An NGO refugee rescue ship that bears the boy’s name was detained by Italian port authorities on May 6 in Sicily, after it rescued 150 people off the coast of warn-torn Libya over Easter.

The Aita Mari, a civil rescue ship operated by Basque charity Humanitarian Maritime Rescue, has also been held on the Italian island since May 7 after it saved 47 lives in the same period.

In a video message addressed to Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Saturday, the boy’s paternal aunt, Tima, urged his government not to leave refugees to die in the Mediterranean.

“My nephew Alan was only two years old when he drowned with his brother Galip and his mother Rihanna,” Ms  Kurdi said.

“If he [had been] rescued by [a] ship back then in 2015 with his family, today he would be seven years old and preparing to go to school for the second year.

“My message to the Italian government and to Prime Minister Conte: this is not about politics, this is about human life.

“Please free the ship Alan Kurdi. Please do your best to save as many lives as possible.”

Alan’s father, Abdullah, said he was upset by the ship’s seizure.

“I gave my son’s name to the ship because I want to save all refugees who are fleeing war and poverty,” Mr Kurdi said.

“I hope that the Italian government and the Italian people will free the ship to save lives.”

Simon Pompe, a spokesman for the German charity Sea Eye which operates the Alan Kurdi, told the Star today that the seizure of the ships serves no purpose other than to delay their rescue missions.

“Every second our ship is locked away is a missed chance to save lives,” Mr Pompe said.

“Fewer civil rescue ships translates directly into more miserable deaths in the Mediterranean. It is therefore reckless and grossly negligent to detain the Alan Kurdi and the Aita Mari any longer.

“The reasons given by the authorities for the detention of our ship are, and have been from the start, baseless and phoney.

“Time and time again, European governments stand in the way of human rights instead of defending them at the EU’s Mediterranean borders. They’d rather let people drown quietly and alone in the Mediterranean. We won’t let them.

“On Saturday, Sea-Eye and its friends marched alongside the Black Lives Matter movement in Berlin and elsewhere. At the root of this blatant disregard for refugees’ life is racism.”

Alarm Phone, an activist network that maintains a hotline for refugees in distress at sea, told the Star that the civil rescue ships are more important than ever.

An spokeswoman for the group said: "The central Mediterranean has become a liquid graveyard.

"State authorities do not feel obliged to engage in rescue operations, their air assets declare that boats are not in distress — although the majority of these boats are not sea-worthy, are often overcrowded, and people are not equipped adequately.

"The civil fleet are the only vessels filling in the rescue gap.

"The assistance of Alan Kurdi and Aita Mari during Easter was essential when no state assets were present or even willing to act.

"The death toll would have been much higher than the 12 lives that were lost had it not been for them. A brutal consequence of the non-assistance by state actors.

"Although states continuously try to block and criminalise the civil fleet, they cannot stop boats like the Alan Kurdi and the Aita Mari."

Meanwhile the Sea Watch 3, another refugee rescue ship operated by Sea Watch, is on its way to the Libyan search and rescue zone.

It will be the first rescue ship in the area for six weeks.

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