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A right-wing Australian politician has sparked outrage by claiming three-year-old refugee Aylan Kurdi drowned in the Mediterranean because his father wanted dental treatment.

Cory Bernardi, a Senator of the governing Liberal party, told his country's parliament Abdullah Kurdi and his family were not real refugees and suggested many others seeking asylum in Europe were merely "opportunistic".

Aylan's body washed up on a beach in the Turkish tourist resort of Bodrum last week, with pictures of tragic scene triggering worldwide calls for action amid the escalating migrant crisis. His five-year-old brother Galip and their mother Rehan also died.

But speaking on Monday in response to motion to resettle an extra 20,000 Syrian and Iraqi refuguees in Australia, Mr Bernardi said: "I find it a bit sanctimonious for [Green] Senator [Richard] Di Natale to bring in these emotive arguments, and particularly to characterise this as some sort of humanitarian mission by using the terrible image of that young boy who was picked up from the beach after having drowned at sea."

He added: "The facts remain that that terrible image was not brought about by recent events in Syria or Iraq. That boy and his family had lived in Turkey for three years.

"The money for that boy's father to pay the people smugglers was sent from Canada. The father sent them on that boat so the father could get dental treatment.

"They were in no fear, they were in no persecution and they were in no danger in Turkey."

He also said: "This seems to me to be becoming an opportunistic cycle which is masking the true humanitarian need that is the responsibility of all western nations.”

The comment have been widely condemned by fellow politicians.

Anthony Albanese, a frontbencher with the opposition Labor party, told reporters outside parliament: “Cory Bernadi is an embarrassment to this parliament. He should be treated with the contempt those comments deserve.”

And Liberal party deputy leader Julie Bishop said: “I don’t believe he could be referring to those fleeing Syria.

“People fleeing from Syria are fleeing from the most diabolical circumstances.”