ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The father of the Syrian Kurdish child whose drowned body was pictured across the world Wednesday has reportedly told his sister he wants to be buried with his family in their hometown of Kobani in the region of Syria known to Kurds as Rojava.



The three-year-old named Aylan Kurdi who drowned Wednesday trying with his family to reach the Greek island Kos from Turkey. Subsequent reports said his brother, Galip, 5, and their mother, Rehan, 35, also died.



The only survivor from the family, the boys' father Abdullah, told his sister his only wish is to return to Kobani and to bury his dead wife and sons. The request was reported by the Ottawa Citizen on Thursday after speaking with the sister, Tima Kurdi, who has lived in Canada for more than 20 years.



She told the Citizen the family had been refused legal asylum by the Canadian government. Reports said Canadian authorities rejected the family's bid because the United Nations does not register Syrian Kurds who had spent time in Turkey as refugees. The Turkish government reportedly refused to grant the family exit visas.



“I was trying to sponsor them, and I have my friends and my neighbors who helped me with the bank deposits, but we couldn’t get them out, and that is why they went in the boat. I was even paying rent for them in Turkey, but it is horrible the way they treat Syrians there,” Teema told the Citizen.



Aylan was among 23 migrants who Turkish naval officials said had set off in two small boats from the Bodrum peninsula in Turkey and later died.



The Turkish government said Tuesday that the coast guard has rescued over 42,000 migrants in the Aegean Sea since the beginning of 2015, and more than 2,160 in the last week alone.



Turkey hosts more than 1.9 million Syrian refugees. In the European Union, only Germany and Sweden host more than 10,000 Syrian refugees, with other EU countries hosting only hundreds or fewer, Anadolu reported.



Tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing the conflict in their homeland have descended on Turkey's Aegean coast this summer to board boats to Greece, their gateway to the European Union.



The EU is set to formulate new plans next week to share refugees across European states, as well as to speed deportations of unwanted migrants, the 28-nation bloc's migration commissioner said on Sept. 1.