A father was arrested by police for allegedly neglecting his five-year-old son after the boy was left at a border checkpoint between Hong Kong and China on Wednesday.
At 8:15pm, police received a report from a security guard at Lo Wu Control Point in the New Territories that a five-year-old boy had been seen wandering alone without an adult, Wen Wei Po reported.
There was a baby trolley near the boy.
Police officers arrived at the scene and believed that the boy’s parents had abandoned him. They sent the child to North District Hospital for a checkup.
At 9am on Thursday, a 48-year-old man surnamed Lau returned to Hong Kong from Lo Wu Control Point and reported to the police that he had lost his son on Wednesday night.
It was understood that before crossing the border into China, the father had an argument with his mainland Chinese wife, after which they split up and went their separate ways across the border. Each of them allegedly thought the other had their son.
The father was arrested for alleged ill-treatment or neglect by those in charge of a child or young person.
Meanwhile, a one-year-old boy was abandoned by his mother in Yau Ma Tei in Kowloon on Monday, Sing Pao reported.
The mother, who is from Uganda, took her baby son to the home of a friend in Yau Ma Tei on Monday. She asked her friend to take care of her baby for a while, then left and did not return. The friend was unable to get in touch with the mother, and reported the case to the police. Yau Ma Tei Police Station is following up on the case.