Law in Hong Kong doesn’t protect children from abuse, charity warns after four-year-old girl left in semi-coma
Problem made worse as working parents often forced to turn to non-professionals for help because of a shortage of day care services, according to acting director of Against Child Abuse
The situation is exacerbated because of a shortage of day care services for working parents, who are left with no choice but to turn to non-professionals for help.
“Physical abuse is always the most reported type of child abuse to the Social Welfare Department and to us,” acting director of Against Child Abuse Wong Chui-ling said, adding that the annual number of reported physical child abuse cases has never dropped below two digits in the past two decades.
Other types of abuses include neglect, sexual abuse and psychological abuse.
On Friday, a four-year-old girl was admitted to an intensive care unit in Yau Ma Tei after she was found to have multiple bruises on her body and to be suffering from bleeding in the brain. Two women, aged 36 and 41, who had been asked to take care of the girl for two weeks by her mother, were arrested.
In 2016, among the 1,121 calls received by Against Child Abuse, 198 were alleged child abuse cases. Of which 105, or 53 per cent, were physical abuse. A total of 228 suspected abusers were involved in the 198 cases, of which eight were care givers and 144 were family members.