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This is the haunting last image of little Aylan Kurdi sleeping peacefully just hours before he drowned while trying to reach Europe with his family.

The three-year-old Syrian boy was said to have been 'happy' and 'so excited' about the prospect of getting to Europe.

But just hours later he had perished at sea and his body was later found washed up on a beach in Bodrum.

The image of his lifeless body slumped on the sand has since sparked international outrage over Europe's migration crisis.

(Image: Reuters)

His aunt told how Aylan was 'happy' and 'so excited' about finding a new home after his family fled their hometown of Kobane which has been reduced to rubble by the Islamic State.

Four men have been charged over the death of tragic Aylan, his brother Galip and at least 10 other people.

The Syrian men have appeared in court in Turkey accused of causing the death of the tragic children, their mother Rehan and a number of other desperate refugees.

The men, who have not been named, have been charged with smuggling migrants and causing multiple deaths by "conscious negligence" in connection with the horrific capsizing of a boat off the Turkish coast.

Aylan, three, and his brother, five, both drowned with their 35-year-old mother as they desperately attempted to flee their wartorn country.

Heartbreaking photos later showed the tragic children dead on the beach in Bodrum after they were washed up on the shore.

News of the charges come as the boys' father Abdullah Kurdi took the bodies of his children and wife Rehan back to the Syrian Kurdish region they fled to bury them in their hometown of Kobane.

The distraught 40-year-old wept as their bodies were buried alongside each other in the "Martyrs' Ceremony".

With the burial, Mr Abdullah abandoned any plans of leaving his homeland again.

"He only wanted to go to Europe for the sake of his children," said Suleiman Kurdi, an uncle of the grieving father. "Now that they're dead, he wants to stay here in Kobane next to them."

Scores of casually dressed mourners clustered around as the bodies were laid in the dry, bare earth of the Martyrs Cemetery. Clouds of dust rose as dirt was shovelled over the graves.

Speaking at the border crossing, Kurdi said he hoped the death of his family would encourage Arab states to help Syrian refugees.

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(Image: Getty) (Image: Ian Vogler)

"I want from Arab governments - not European countries - to see (what happened to) my children, and because of them to help people," he said in footage posted online by a local radio station.

The haunting image of the man's three-year-old son, Aylan Kurdi, washed up on a Turkish beach focused the world's attention on the wave of migration fuelled by war and deprivation.

(Image: Getty)

(Image: Reuters)

A convoy of vehicles crossed into Kobane from the Turkish border town of Suruc on Friday.

Politicians from Turkey accompanied Abdullah Kurdi to Kobani.

Journalists and well-wishers were stopped at a check-point just over a mile from the border.

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Kobane has seen some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

Aylan and his family had fled the city before he drowned along with his five-year-old brother Galip and his mother, Rehan while trying to reach the island of Kos.

(Image: Getty) (Image: Ian Vogler)

The deaths have done little to deter migrants, many refugees from war in the Middle East, from taking to small boats for the two-mile crossing to Kos from Bodrum.

(Image: Getty)

Coastguards halted three boats carrying 57 Syrians, Afghans and Pakistanis late on Thursday, impounding the vessels and taking the passengers back to Turkey, where they spent the night sleeping under blankets in the yard of the coastguard building.

Those with papers identifying where they came from will be deported, other than to Syria, whilst the rest will stay in Turkey, an officer for the Bodrum coastguard told Reuters.