An image of his tiny body, carried by a guard on the beach, shocked people around the world and led to calls for urgent action to end the migrant crisis.
Today, his father has spoken along with human rights groups, calling on governments to keep their doors open to migrants.
It's been a year since father Abdullah Kurdi lost his three year-old son, Aylan.
Alan's brother, Galib, and mother also drowned when their boat sank en route to Greece.
Mr Kurdi has told the BBC the first anniversary of their deaths has been particularly difficult.
"Every day I think of them, but today I felt as if they had come to me and slept with me, and this makes me sad again."
Haunting images of Aylan's body lying on a Turkish beach focused world attention on the refugee crisis.
The public and politicians rallied support to help refugees making the dangerous journey to Europe.
But, like many major international campaigns, it slowly lost its fervour and momentum.
But the war in Syria rages on, and so do the number of migrants risking their lives to find safety in Europe.
Mr Kurdi again.
"At first the world was anxious to help the refugees, but this did not even last a month. In fact the situation has got worse, the war has escalated and more people are leaving."
The route across the Aegean Sea which the Kurdis took has been closed, although some still try to make the crossing.
Most migrants now come to Europe via Libya - and most are picked up and taken to Italy.
Over 282,000 migrants have arrived in Europe by sea this year - significantly fewer than in the same period last year.
But the number of deaths is higher.
This year more than 3,000 people have drowned.
More than 1,000 survivors have arrived in the Italian city of Salerno, rescued by the Spanish Navy off the coast of Libya.
Red Cross Italy spokesman, Giuseppe La Mura, says about 140 were women and children.
"The way we usually help is by receiving them in a medical area, an advanced medical unit divided between women and men. The women's area has also a gynaecological and a paediatric area, while the men's is just for emergency cases. They are checked and treated, and if they need, they are taken to hospitals in the area, otherwise they continue with the identification process and are taken to migrant centres."
But camps are often overcrowded and under-resourced to help people waiting to have their asylum claims processed.
In Greece, Karrar Mohomed, from Baghdad, says he has waited more than five months for an interview with officials.
"We came here to ask about our rights. First of all, we believe that we are in jail. We are not in a city, we are not in a camp, we just like in jails. We ran from death and we feel death is here."
Oxfam Australia's Dr Nicole Bieske says despite the outcry soon after Aylan Kurdi's death, the suffering of refugees continues.
"What we've seen since the start of 2016, is a refugee or migrant has died every 80 minutes while trying to reach another country. So despite the public outcry that happened around Aylan Kurdi's death last year, we haven't seen significant change and in fact things have become worse."
She says more could be done in Australia to help refugees rebuild their lives.
"Well what we're calling on the Australian government to do is to increase the humanitarian intake to 42,000 over five years. We're also asking the Australian government to make true its commitment from last year to bring 12,000 Iraqis to Australia."
Abdullah Kurdi says there's just one thing refugees want to try to do, and that is to try and get back to a normal life.
"I hope that all the leaders of the world can try and do good and stop the wars so that the people can go back to normal life."
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