PUBLISHED : 12 Jan 2024 at 04:00
Close to 300 children were reported missing last year, a 17% increase on the previous year and the highest number recorded in the past five years, according to the Mirror Foundation, a non-governmental organisation dedicated to helping find missing people.
Ekaluk Loomchomkae, head of the foundation’s missing persons information centre, said that 296 children were reported missing and that up to 58%, or 172, ran away from home due to various factors, including rows over game addiction and other family problems.
Another 19% of cases were associated with intellectual disabilities, while five children were abducted by sexual predators, said Mr Ekaluk.
Children aged between 11 to 15 years old proved to be the most vulnerable, given the fact that up to 138 individuals reported missing in 2023 were in this age range. Children in this age group also had a high tendency to run away from their families to stay with friends or with someone they met online.
And because they are too young to defend themselves, these runaways often ended up being sexually abused or used as child labour, he said.
The report also highlighted 62 cases of missing children under the age of 10 and another 96 involving teens aged 16-18.
One of last year’s child abduction cases was revealed by the Metropolitan Police Bureau. An eight-year-old boy was abducted by a man who offered him sweets to go with him and then forced him to work as a beggar on the streets. The boy was later rescued, and his abductor was arrested. The man was found to have had a previous conviction for the same offence.