Refugees in Ireland: ‘Our sister drowned on the raft and my baby was just eight weeks old’

A Syrian family tells Joyce Fegan all they have endured since fleeing Aleppo after Islamic State burnt their house down. They have slept rough in Turkey and lost a sister on a raft to Greece before arriving here in December.

The Abdi family lost a sister to drowning as they fled Turkey on a small raft for the unknown shores of Greece.

This tragedy came after years of hardship, from abandoning an under-siege Aleppo to sleeping rough on the streets of Turkey, before fleeing to Kurdistan.