314 children and teenagers were reported missing from home last year, which is the highest number in six years and 6% more than in 2023, according to the Missing People Information Centre of the Mirror Foundation.
According to the centre, 227 (72%) of the 314 children were classed as missing because they ran away from home of their own volition, with the youngest being just seven. 29 went missing from home due to developmental or psychological issues and five were kidnapped.
171 of those missing were aged from 11 to 15. 103 were 16 to 18 and 40 were under 10.
Eakalak Loomchomkhae, head of the centre, said that, from late 2023 through last year, at least a dozen, with the youngest being 14, were duped into working in call centres in Thailand’s neighbouring countries, adding that most of the victims were lured by attractive offers of money.
He said that most of them realised that they had been deceived when they were sent to work in call centres and some had begged their families to pay ransoms in exchange for their freedom.
Meanwhile, Pol Maj-Gen Supeechai Limsivavong, commander of the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the Police General Hospital, said that the ‘DNA-Prokids’ program, which is an international cooperation program in the fight against human trafficking, is helpful in determining whether missing children were abducted or duped by comparing familial DNA with profiles filed in their database.
The Mirror Foundation took the mothers of three missing children to the Institute of Forensic Science to collect their DNA, hoping that it will assist in tracing their missing children.
One of them, a girl, has been missing for 15 years. Another girl has been missing for 11 years and a boy has been missing for five years.
