COMOX VALLEY, B.C. - International police are searching for four Vancouver Island children allegedly abducted by their father overseas.

Alison Azer says in an online fundraising campaign that her ex-husband, Dr. Saren Azer, is a Kurdish Canadian who took their kids to the Middle East.

Azer says the physician left Canada with the children earlier this month and has not returned as expected.

International policing agency INTERPOL lists the children, between the ages of three and 11, as missing on its website.

Their father -- also known as Salahaddin Mahmudi-Azer -- is a well-known internist from the Comox Valley.

Alison Azer's fundraising page says she needs money to bring her children home.