I write with a heavy heart.

In the serene hours of the early morning I speed-read the local and foreign news web-portals.The room is filled with the smell of the brewing coffee.

Last Thursday was not any different.  Until the harrowing image of a young boy,wearing a red t-shirt lying lifeless facing down in the sand, went viral on most of the news websites. This left me perturbed. I could not believe what I was reading. As I skimmed into the text adjoining the image of the lifeless boy, I felt sick at heart. The officer carrying the lifeless body of the toddler on the sandy beach touched me deeply. I felt sad  for the toddler’s fatality.  In an immediate flash judgement, I realised how unfair life can be. I found myself torn between two conflicting reactions. On the one hand, I was saddened by the needless death of the toddler, and infuriated by the many factors that contributed to this tragedy.

I found comfort in the thought that it was unnecessary for Aylan Kurdi to knock and wait at heaven’s door to open following his untimely demise.  He found heaven’s doors wide open and was welcomed by the Father.  Aylan was cheered and greeted by many other toddlers who had the same fate. Aylan, with other toddlers, can now play with his bucket and spade on the perpetual heavenly sandy beaches, building sand castles. In such sorrows, this is but a small comfort, nonetheless.

With his father Abdullah, mother Rehana and his five-year-old brother Galip, the three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, was attempting to cross on a boat to the Greek island of Kos when it capsized. The Kurdi family was on the smugglers’ boat in an attempt to flee the war between Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad’s regime government and rebel forces. Of the Kurdi family, only the father survived. I believe he does not count himself as the luckiest of persons who has cheated death.  He will be haunted and will have to learn to live with grief and heartache for the rest of his life for the loss of his dear wife and his two lively toddlers. 

In this tragic moment for the Kurdi family, I wonder how the father can find solace and the courage to fight his feeling of guilt for taking such a huge risk with the hope of a better future for his family in another country. From what we read and follow in the media, life is hard in his native Syria.    

The image of the lifeless toddler Aylan Kurdi on the sandy beach should serve as a reminder to all political leaders of their responsibilities and to stop drifting and changing goalposts in this Europe’s greatest post-war migration crisis.  The European Union leaders cannot shift their responsibility onto well-intentioned but toothless organisations to improve the refugees’ status and/or prevent refugees from settling in the continent. The fate of the thousands of refugees who are dying in their desperation to flee persecution cannot continue to be addressed superficially.

While international military intervention could have been one way the Syrians might have been protected, they could have also been granted the opportunity to move to other countries as refugees. But then the question arises, which country has that responsibility? Who should have taken them in?

It is time for world leaders to take responsible decisions for the sake of humanity.Aylan’stragic demise has shocked the worldbut this, on its own, is not enough to save others from encountering similar circumstances.

Aylan’s departure would serve a purpose if EU’s, the Gulf States’, and other worldwide institutions’ leaders endeavour to genuinely address the refugees’ issues, complex as they may be. The EU leaders’ bickering over the distribution of immigrants has turned the Mediterranean Sea into a cemetery. The inaction of other neighbouring states to Syria is deafening. So far, we have witnessed the drowning not just of thousands of immigrants but also that of international solidarity. If this human tragedy continues, leaders can be blamed as the accomplices to total indifference and disregard to human life.

Well, sadly, Aylan has gone, but let’s hope that in the not too distant future world leaders, including ours, would have devised an international treaty to address the needs of people in dire circumstances with the dignity they deserve irrespective of their creed, culture and colour.

The treaty should be named after Aylan Kurdi.At least, his drowning would not have been in vain.

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