Relatives of drowned Syrian boy opens hair salon in Canada

Mohammad Kurdi, uncle of the drowned Syrian boy Alan Kurdi, has opened a hair salon in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia in west Canada Saturday, less than a week of his new settlement here as a refugee.

Mohammad, his wife and five children arrived at Vancouver International Airport on Dec. 28 from Europe and were welcomed by his sister Tima Kurdi who has been living in Canada for many years.

Because of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old boy whose lifeless body was found washed up on a Turkish beach in September 2015, Mohammad and his family also become a concern for many Canadians.

It's been three years since Mohammad and his family left the war-torn Syria, where he worked as a barber. Now that he has finally settled down in Port Coquitlam, a small city 25 kilometers east of Vancouver, he said he was ready to get back to work alongside his sister at the salon called Kurdi Hair Design.

"Hard work to bring it to succeed, I'm very happy," Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) news quoted him as saying in Arabic on Saturday, the first day of the opening.

Family and friends were invited to celebrate the salon opening, but even strangers dropped by to offer their well wishes.

"We don't like asking too much for help," Mohammad said. "We like to work and to bring our life together, work very hard to support our family," he said, of his a new life here in Canada. Endit