Abdullah Kurdi after his sons Alan and Galip died near the Turkish resort of Bodrum. Credit:AP The Wall Street Journal said Mr Kurdi had denied Ms Abbas' claim, saying the boat's Turkish captain jumped into the water shortly after the engine stalled. "I lost my family, I lost my life, I lost everything, so let them say whatever they want," he told the newspaper. Ms Abbas claimed she met Mr Kurdi and another man in a cafe and handed over $US10,000 to get them to Europe. "[The other man] told me, 'You have to give me the money and when you get safely to Bodrum, the island, you call me and tell me that you arrived safely'," she said.

Aylan Kurdi, left, with his brother Galip. Both drowned in their family's attempt to reach Greece. Ms Abbas said he told her the boat was safe to make the perilous journey. "He said, 'Don't worry, the captain of the boat, the driver, is going to bring his two kids and his wife'," she said. Zainab Abbas with her husband Ahmad Hadi and their children. Zainab and Haider (left and centre) died in the tragedy, while Rawan (right) survived. Ms Abbas said there were too many people in the boat and not enough life jackets when it capsized.

Her husband had asked Mr Kurdi to slow down, but he didn't listen, she said. Crying, Ms Abbas said she and her husband and daughter held on to a life jacket but her other two children, a boy and girl, were lost. "I was screaming, calling out for them, but there wasn't anyone replying," she said. "They were my life, I have no life now. Right now I can't believe they are gone." Ms Abbas said she heard Mr Kurdi claim in the media that a Turkish man had driven the boat, but that this was not the case.

"I've lost my kids, I've lost my life, how can he lie to the media?" Ms Abbas is calling on Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott grant her family asylum so they can escape Islamic State. "I beg the Australian government to do something for me," she said. Mr Kurdi has repeatedly spoken publicly about his ordeal, telling reporters that somewhere between Turkey and Greece, their boat started filling with water. He said the boat's captain panicked due to the high waves, jumped into the sea and fled, leaving him in control of the small craft, the NZ Herald reported.

"I took over and started steering," he said. "The waves were so high and the boat flipped." Mr Kurdi told Turkey's Dogan News Agency his children "slipped from my hands". "We tried to hold on to the boat, but it deflated rapidly. Everyone was screaming. I could not hear the voices of my children and my wife." Mr Kurdi said he swam to the beach, following the lights on the shore. He looked for his wife and children and could not find them, he said.

Last Thursday, Mr Kurdi collapsed in tears after emerging from a morgue in the city of Mugla near Bodrum in Turkey. "The things that happened to us here, in the country where we took refuge to escape war in our homeland, we want the whole world to see this," he said. Mr Kurdi has now returned to Syria and the ruins of the city of Kobani; the home he and his family had fled. His wife and sons were buried in Kobani on Friday. Ms Abbas' cousin by marriage, Lara Tahseen, told Fairfax Media the family was angry at their treatment by Turkish authorities compared to Mr Kurdi's.

"All the media attention was on Aylan Kurdi and Abdullah Kurdi and not on them," she said. Ms Tahseen said when Ms Abbas and her husband Ahmed Hadi returned in Baghdad, they found their dead children's bodies had not been correctly prepared for burial. She said this was done despite the family waiting in Turkey for eight days to do paperwork to receive the bodies. Ms Tehseen said Ms Abbas was "heartbroken". "Their daughter has been left in shock after what she saw happen in the sea to her brother and sister," she said. "She can't talk."

Meanwhile, the family has been left with no house and income after they sold everything to flee to Europe. With Kate Aubusson