Missing migrant twin girls reunited with parents

A four-year-old migrant girl, found by a UN patrol in the early hours walking in the buffer zone, close to Athienou, Larnaca, was reunited with her parents, as was her missing twin sister.

Police said the twin sister was found safe and unharmed in the Pournara reception camp for asylum seekers outside Nicosia.

The first girl was handed over to her Pakistani parents Tuesday at the Ledra Palace checkpoint by social services cooperating with the Police and the UN.

The parents separated from their children as they tried to cross the Green Line from the north under darkness.

When it became known that the girl had a missing twin sister, police launched a search, and UN officers and farmers in the area also took part.

Police spokesperson Christos Andreou told CNA: “A woman, an irregular immigrant, seems to have crossed to the free areas from the occupied north at the same time with the twin girls and their parents.

“Under conditions, unspecified so far, the woman took one of the girls with her”.

“It seems an unknown individual transported the woman and the girl by car to Pournara reception camp in Kokkinotrimithia”.

After investigation, they concluded that the girl was the girl’s twin sister found in the morning near the Athienou buffer zone by UN personnel, Andreou said.

The woman who brought the second girl with her to Pournara gave a statement to the police to clarify the conditions under which the girl and herself were together and to discover the person that transported them.