The family of the drowned Syrian toddler the photo of whose lifeless body on a Turkish beach sparked outrage had been denied asylum in Canada.

According to Canadian media accounts on Thursday, the Vancouver-based aunt of the three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, whose corpse was washed ashore in Turkey on Wednesday, had applied to obtain Canadian refugee status for her relatives in Syria’s war-ravaged town of Kobani, which was largely destroyed after being attacked by the Takfiri Daesh terrorists in June 2015.

Press reports in Canada recounted the story on Thursday, citing Fin Donnelly, a member of the Canadian House of Commons, who had submitted the refugee status application on the family’s behalf.

Citing Aylan’s aunt, Teema Kurdi, the Ottawa Citizen newspaper reported that Canadian immigration authorities rejected the application, in part because of the family's lack of the internationally recognized refugee status as well as exit visas out of Turkey. The daily said she had immigrated to Canada over 20 years ago.

According to the report, Teema Kurdi also explained that the family of her brother Abdullah, including his wife Rehan and their two boys, Aylan and 5-year-old Galip, embarked on the dangerous sea journey only after their application to move to Canada was rejected.

"I was trying to sponsor them, and I have my friends and my neighbors who helped me with the bank deposits, but we couldn't get them out, and that is why they went in the boat," the aunt told the Canadian daily.

Aylan, Galip and their mother died on the same boat on Wednesday, as their boat carrying refugees attempting to cross to the Greek island of Kos from the Turkish coast sank. The father, however, is believed to have survived.

Turkey's Anadolu news agency reported Thursday that the country’s organized crime police had arrested four suspected human smugglers on a beach on Turkey's Bodrum peninsula. The report added that the four were suspected of acting as intermediaries for illegal refugee crossings.