Written Replies to Parliamentary Questions
Written Reply to Parliamentary Question on Missing Persons in Singapore
14 February 2022
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Question:
Mr Mohd Fahmi Bin Aliman: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) for each year of the past three years, what is the (i) number of missing persons, with the breakdown by age group, ethnicity and income level and (ii) proportion of vulnerable missing persons out of the total number of missing persons; (b) what is the police’s current approach in preventing and identifying missing persons; and (c) whether the police will consider implementing additional measures to prevent and locate missing persons.
Answer:
Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law:
1. There were 5072 missing persons reported to the Police over the past three years, from 2019 to 2021. Of these, about 15% were vulnerable persons such as young children and elderly persons. Tables 1 and 2 contain a breakdown of the profile of missing persons by age group and ethnicity. We do not track the income level of reported missing persons.
Table 1: Breakdown of missing persons by age
Table caption
Age Group | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|
1 to 10 | 27 | 26 | 22 |
11 to 20 | 634 | 559 | 530 |
21 to 30 | 519 | 321 | 256 |
31 to 40 | 444 | 355 | 246 |
41 to 50 | 176 | 144 | 128 |
51 to 60 | 110 | 77 | 88 |
61 to 70 | 64 | 57 | 60 |
71 to 80 | 61 | 50 | 43 |
81 to 90 | 26 | 21 | 22 |
91 to 100 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
101 and above | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Grand Total | 2064 | 1611 | 1397 |
Table 2: Breakdown of missing persons by ethnicity
Table caption
Ethnicity | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|
Chinese | 671 | 473 | 433 |
Indian | 417 | 340 | 283 |
Malay | 630 | 542 | 532 |
Others | 346 | 256 | 149 |
Grand Total | 2064 | 1611 | 1397 |
2. When Police receive a report on a missing person, investigations will be conducted to locate the person. Police will interview the person who lodged the report to establish background facts pertaining to the missing person such as the state of his/her mental health and the circumstances under which he/she was last seen. Police will also disseminate lookout messages for the missing person to all police resources, especially those within the particular area where the missing person is reasonably believed to be.
3. Police will accord priority to vulnerable missing persons as they may be at higher risk. These include young children, elderly persons, and persons with intellectual disabilities such as dementia.
4. In addition, Police have established procedures with other Government agencies to get their help to locate missing persons. For example, Police will make enquiries with other Government agencies, such as education institutions, hospitals and the Ministry of Social and Family Development. Police may also issue appeals for information to seek the public’s assistance.
5. We welcome further suggestions to locate missing persons more effectively.