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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
Two-year-old Syrian-Kurdish refugee Alan Kurdi (top left) drowned with his brother and mother while trying to reach Europe in 2015 and (main) Sea Eye's ship the Alan Kurdi [Sea Eye]

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.

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