Three-year-old Alan Kurdi, his five-year-old brother Galip and their mother, Rehan, died in desperate attempt to flee to relatives

The family of a three-year-old Syrian boy whose body was washed up on a beach in Turkey were making a final, desperate attempt to flee to relatives in Canada even though their asylum application had been rejected, according to reports.

Syria was already at war when Alan Kurdi was born. He died with his five-year-old brother, Galip, and mother, Rehan. Their father, Abdullah, survived.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Abdullah Kurdi describes the moment when the boat he was travelling on with his family suddenly capsized.

Speaking to Canadian press on Wednesday night, the family said Abdullah had phoned them to tell them his wife and sons were dead, and he now only wanted to return to their Kurdish home town of Kobani to bury his family. The town was bombarded during heavy fighting this year between Islamic State and Kurdish fighters.

Pictures have emerged of the two boys, a laughing Alan and Galip holding a teddy bear in a pink dress, and the pair standing together on a sofa, with Galip’s arm around his small brother.

Their aunt Teema Kurdi, a hairdresser in Vancouver, heard the news from her brother Mohammad’s wife, Ghuson. “She had got a call from Abdullah, and all he said was, my wife and two boys are dead,” she told the National Post.

“I was trying to sponsor them, and I have my friends and my neighbours 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.”

Kurdi, who emigrated to Canada more than two decades ago, said she had privately sponsored a refugee application for the family to join her in Canada, but the application had been rejected.

Alan Kurdi and his older brother, Galip. Photograph: Twitter

Her account was confirmed by her local MP, Fin Donnelly, who told the paper that he had personally delivered Kurdi’s application to the immigration minister, Chris Alexander, in March, but it had been turned down.

Donnelly said he had spoken to Kurdi since the pictures were published and she was devastated. He told the Associated Press: “This tragic loss is just heartwrenching to go through. She was just completely upset and heartbroken.”

He said there were tentative suggestions about holding a memorial service for the family locally, but nothing had been decided. “She did say that she’s spoken to her brother and it’s very hard for him to even want to stay alive at this point, knowing what he’s going through.”

Canada allows refugees to settle if they have the sponsorship of at least five Canadian citizens, on the condition that those citizens provide financial and emotional support.

Only people who have been formally designated as refugees can apply, and many Syrian Kurds have reported difficulties getting their applications processed in UNHCR camps in Turkey. Turkey will not issue exit visas to refugees if they do not have official status.

The two young brothers and their mother were among at least 12 Syrians who died on a boat headed for Greece. The boat was part of a flotilla of small dinghies boarded by passengers at Akyarlar, the closest point to the Greek Aegean island of Kos.

It overturned in calm waters, overloaded by the 17 passengers. Bodies washed up on Ali Hoca Point beach in Bodrum. Another dinghy carrying a further 16 people also capsized.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Turkish police officer carries Alan’s body. Photograph: Reuters

The Turkish coastguard said five children and a woman died after the boats capsized and another three people were still missing. Helicopters helped rescue a further 15 people.

The country’s state-run news agency, Anadolu, said police have detained four suspected people smugglers, linking them with the tragedy.

Anadolu said the suspects, including at least one Syrian citizen, were detained on a beach on the Bodrum peninsula and would appear in court later on Thursday, suspected of acting as intermediaries for illegal crossings.

This week the coastguard said it had rescued more than 42,000 people in the Aegean Sea in the first five months of 2015, and 2,160 in the past week. More than 100 were pulled from the sea on Wednesday night alone, trying to reach Kos, the coastguard told AFP.