Relatives of Alan Kurdi arrive in Canada

Mohammed Kurdi along with his wife and children are due to arrive at YVR at 11:30 am, where they will be met by his sister Tima who lives in Coquitlam.

When Aylan Kurdi’s lifeless body was photographed washed up on a Turkish beach – it sparked global concern over the Syrian refugee crisis.

Tima Kurdi (centre) welcomes her brother Mohammad Kurdi, his wife and their five children, who she is sponsoring as refugees in B.C., at Vancouver International Airport on Monday.

Mohammed, his wife and their five children are among 25,000 Syrian refugees expected to arrive in Canada by the end of February under a government pledge issued by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party.

Alan’s father, Abdullah, is residing in northern Iraq and has declined both his sister’s request and the federal government’s invitation for him to come to Canada. Canadian officials said the application didn’t have the required documentation.

Kurdi says she’s humbled by the outpouring of support her family has received, although she has also had to endure an onslaught of negative comments from online trolls. Weeks after Alan drowned, Hivrun & her kids made the same perilous ocean journey from Turkey to Greece.

Mohammed Kurdi, Alan’s uncle, thanked Canadians for making his dream come true after landing in British Colombia today. An aunt was stuck in Istanbul, nursing a baby, as her son & daughter worked 18-hour shifts in a sweatshop so the family might eat. Until their flight to Canada, he had yet to even meet his youngest child, who was born after the family separated.

Tima Kurdi then thanked a long list of people for helping get her family to Canada.

“They’re like every single one of us in the West”, Kurdi says, her fingers playing anxiously with the tissue she holds in her lap. “Very fine, thank you”, Mohammad told reporters.

It highlighted the plight of the hundreds of thousands of refugees flooding out of war-torn Syria and drew worldwide attention to what is, according to the International Organization for Migration, the most deadly crossing point in the world.

Earlier this month, Mr Trudeau was in Toronto to greet the first planeload of Syrian refugees sponsored by the Canadian government.

Rehana, Aylan and Galip were among the 12 people who drowned after two boats carrying 22 people capsized.

Mohammad Kurdi will be joining his sister at her Port Coquitlam hair salon on Coast Meridian Road, where he’ll work as a barber.