What can be done to reduce domestic violence?
The murder-suicide tragedy in Tin Shui Wai in which a mentally ill mother committed suicide after throwing her children from their 24th-floor flat has sent shockwaves through the city.
With so many cases of domestic violence and suicide taking place in Tin Shui Wai in recent years, residents of the new town have grown numb to family tragedies. Shocking cases like this one are just the tip of the iceberg as many domestic violence cases in Tin Shui Wai often go unreported.
We have to ask why there are so many of these cases in this new town. One of the contributory factors is that there are many new immigrants living there.
Many of the public housing residents in Tin Shui Wai are low-income families who have come from the mainland and as more public housing estates are built, more migrants move in.
Most of them have found it difficult to adapt to the fast pace of life in Hong Kong and they do not possess the skills they need to get work. Consequently, employment opportunities are scarce and they usually live on welfare.
They have no one to talk to about their problems and small disputes can escalate into domestic violence or end in suicide. Another problem is that social services have not kept pace with the rapid growth of the population. There are not enough integrated family service centres in the district. Therefore, many high-risk cases which urgently need attention are not identified.