LESBOS ISLAND: The body of a child believed to have drowned in a migrant boat accident washed up on a beach of the Greek island of Lesbos on Sunday, the Athens News Agency.

Local media reports and coastguard sources said it was believed the headless body, in an advanced state of decomposition, was that of a nine-year-old girl who went missing after a boat sank off the east of Lesbos last month.

People who found the body on Lesbos’s Vatera beach early on Sunday aler­ted the coastguard, who took the bo­dy to hospital for an autopsy.

Hours later, the body of a man was also discovered in the same area, Athens News Agency reported.

On Thur­sday, two children were amo­ng three people who died wh­en a migrant boat sank ne­­­­ar the Greek island of Samos.

More than 200 refugees and migrants have died so far this year trying to cross the Mediterranean, most headed towards Italy, acco­rding to the International Organi­sation for Migration.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2019