When the image of Alan Kurdi’s corpse was was seared into our international conscience as a symbol of the Syrian civil war, he was likely 3 years old. Kurdi’s death was not collateral damage. Syrian dictator Bashar Assad does not gas his own civilians by accident, and the Islamic State hardly pretends to be anything less than a cult of death. Kurdi’s parents likely felt they had no choice but to leave because they didn’t. They could either wait to die at the hands of Syrian aggressors or take a chance that ultimately proved to be fatal.

International law accepts that the persecution Kurdi’s family faced was grounds for seeking asylum. Though the question of Kurdi’s attempt to obtain refugee status in Canada became a heated political issue, the real barrier to Canada welcoming Kurdi’s family as refugees was the Turkish government’s refusal to issue an exit visa. And so it’s at least understandable that Kurdi’s parents decided to gamble with their lives.