Search called off after father throws dead child overboard (updated)

The search for the body of a six-year-old child reportedly thrown into the sea from a boat carrying irregular migrants to Cyprus was called off on Monday lunchtime, the Joint Rescue and Command Centre (JRCC) said.

The child reportedly died while undergoing a dangerous journey to Cyprus from the shores of Syria at which point his father threw his dead body into the sea, police said on Monday.

The search for three migrants on the same boat who had reportedly abandoned the distressed vessel to seek help was also called off at the same time on Monday.

According to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), the JRCC was informed that the three men abandoned the boat after it was spotted by the coastal and maritime police on Friday and attempted to swim ashore to seek assistance.

CNA reported that, according to JRCC sources, “all hope of finding any individuals has now been lost”.

“On February 29, the radars of the coastal and maritime police detected a boat 58 nautical miles off Larnaca with a total of 36 irregular immigrants on board,” police spokesperson Christos Andreou said.

“Officers intercepted the vessel, which was sailing in bad weather conditions, and through enormous effort managed to collect the migrants and bring them to safety on land.”

He added that during their registration process, a family had been identified with four children according to their paperwork, however only three children had disembarked.

Asked where the fourth child was, the father told the police that two days before the boat was found his six-year-old had died from starvation and rough conditions and he had thrown his child’s body into the sea.

Andreou added that “the father who claimed to have thrown his child into the sea has not been arrested”.

According to reports, the group had set off nine days earlier from Syria. During the course of the journey, food and fuel ran out and the boat got caught up in a storm.

Survivors reported that three other people on board had abandoned the vessel with improvised floats in an attempt to swim to shore and get help.

Two other migrants are currently hospitalised at Nicosia general hospital, one in a critical condition with hypernatremia after drinking sea water because they ran out of water, Andreou said.

The migrants had been transferred to the Pournara reception centre in Kokkinotrimithia.

A 22-year-old boat pilot was arrested for the crime of assisting the passage of irregular migrants to territory of the Republic.

Among other things the boat’s operator is facing charges of homicide and causing death through negligence.

The young man was brought before the Larnaca district court on Friday, where he was remanded for eight days.