Hong Kong’s missing persons: thousands of people vanish every year but the police don’t keep official records
An average of 4,818 people are reported missing every year in Hong Kong - but we don’t know how many for sure, as the police don’t keep official records
Nearly 3,000 people make up Hong Kong’s considerable list of missing people, leaving behind confused and distraught families and friends. The Hong Kong Police doesn’t have readily available information on how the situation has changed after the handover, or who the victims typically are, but one scholar says many people vanish on purpose because they are on the run from debts they cannot pay.
From January 2011 to October 2015, 24,090 people were reported missing in Hong Kong. Most of them were found, but 2,717 remained missing, according to official data.
In the first ten months of last year, there were 3,116 people reported missing. Of that number, 271 were not found, despite Hong Kong being one the safest places in the world.
Bookseller Lee Bo and four other publishers, who went missing recently, have made headlines worldwide. Their disappearances, which recent evidence suggests was politically motivated, raises questions over the large number of individuals who disappear in Hong Kong — either forcibly or willingly — and provoke questions not just about the reasons behind their disappearances, but the absence of detailed information publicly available on the matter.
Sarah Hua Zhong, an associate professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Department of Sociology, said financial problems might be behind many missing cases. “Some people borrow money and then find themselves having great debts. As we all know, with the presence of criminal organisations in Hong Kong, many are threatened, and their families also become victims,” she said. “As they are not able to pay, many might just decide to run away.”
Zhong noted that this is a not a new concept in Hong Kong. Some use fake passports to reach overseas, others might take illegal ships, she said, noting that most missing persons are likely to be young or middle-aged men.