SHARJAH // A couple have been arrested months after the body of a one-month-old child was found on a Sharjah beach.
The two, of African descent, told police they abandoned the baby in March, Al Ittihad, the Arabic-language sister paper of The National reported. The child's gender was not mentioned, and the date of the parents' arrest was not specified. They will be referred to public prosecution once the investigation is complete.
Last year, the bodies of three newborns were found in quick succession in the emirate. Two were found at a rubbish dump in Al Sajaa, on separate occasions, while one child was found in a dump in Industrial Area No 12.
In March 2013, the body of a newborn boy was found in a bin in Al Dhaid. At the time, police said they believed the child had been born illegally before being dumped by his parents.
The previous year, a newborn survived being thrown down from the ninth-floor rubbish chute of a building. The boy suffered a fractured skull and was treated at Al Qassimi Hospital for more than a month before being transferred to a home for abused and abandoned children run by Sharjah Social Services.
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