ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A 4-year old Syrian whose lifeless body was found off the coast of the western Turkish city of Bodrum Sunday by fishermen was among a group of 15 migrants reported missing after a boat sank on its way to Greece, according to Turkish media.
The child was identified as a 4-year-old Syrian girl named Sena after a survivor, Nirvan Hassan, identified her, according to the Hurriyet Daily News. Nine bodies have so far been recovered from the lost craft, and the corpses have been sent to the provincial capital Mugla for autopsy, Hurriyet added.
“When she got on the boat, her mother would continuously call out Sena. That's when I learned her name,” the Zaman newspaper quoted another survivor as recalling of the incident.
The drowning death of Sena mirrors the death of 3-year-old Kurdish toddler Alan Kurdi, whose body also washed up on Turkey's Aegean coast after a boat carrying him alongside his family and 15 other migrants sank in September. A picture of Kurdi’s limp, lifeless body circulating on social media became a symbol of Syrian refugees fleeing violence in their homeland.
