The disappearance of mentally disabled Hong Kong boy Yu Man-hon has sparked severe condemnation of the Immigration Department for making an 'unacceptable' and 'irreparable' mistake.
The 15-year-old, who has a mental age of two, is an autistic boy who cannot speak and needs daily medication for hyperactiv ity.
He ran away from his mother at Yau Ma Tei MTR station on August 30 and was seen by mainland officers at the Shenzhen border later the same day.
He is still missing.
Guangdong's Public Security Bureau said tens of thousands of officers were involved in the search.
The vice-director of the bureau's propaganda department, Li Shibin, said mainland authorities would improve their procedures for handling such cases, if necessary. But what went wrong had to be found out first, he said.
