The number of children missing after running away from home has risen by 10 percent over the past three years, the Missing Children Data Resource Center said yesterday.
Center director Lin Wu-hsiung (林武雄) told a press conference that the percentage of children who went missing after running away from home in the center’s database hit 84.6 percent last year, from 73.7 percent in 2006.
The trend was also evident in figures released by the National Police Agency, which showed that 8,210, or 72.4 percent, of the 11,337 minors currently listed as missing had run away from home, Lin said.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES
Among the runaways in the center’s database over the past three years, 57.5 percent were teenagers who had been attending junior high school, Lin said, adding that the majority were 15-year-olds.
Missing children who had been found by the center between 2006 and last year said they had stayed with boyfriends, friends, classmates or Internet friends after running away, Lin said.
More than 60 percent of the children who were found said they had run away from home more than twice, Lin said, adding that they left home a second or third time because the communication barrier between them and their family members had remained unchanged.
“Many said they left home on impulse, but later realized that running away was not as much fun as they imagined it would be,” Lin said.
Ministry of the Interior Children’s Bureau secretary-general Chen Kun-huang (陳坤皇) urged parents to enhance communication with their children by listening, understanding and appreciating children’s needs and spending more time with them.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS