Maldives Police Service has found the 14-year-old boy who went missing while in state care.
In a tweet, Commissioner of Police Mohamed Hameed said the police forcefully entered in to a house in Male’ City and taken the boy under custody.
The 14-year-old boy went missing from the Children's Shelter in Villimale' on May 18. With more than a week had passed since the child went missing, neither Maldives Police Service nor Gender Ministry were able to gather any information on the case. However, the gender minister revealed the missing child had fled the shelter once before. The police later found him during an investigation of a criminal case and was handed over to the Children's Shelter. The gender ministry stated he was kept in the shelter for a second time as there are no establishments in Maldives to keep children found from crime scenes or tied to crimes.
Minister of Gender, Family and Social Services Shidhatha Shareef was summoned to a closed parliamentary committee meeting to seek information on a child who went missing while under the custody of the government.