Missing boys found |04 June 2020
Ms Laboudallon
The three boys who went missing from the President’s Village on Sunday May 31 – Darren Alcindor, Fhareed and Fahraj Aglaé – were found yesterday morning, social services confirmed in a press conference yesterday.
Police officers found the trio under the bridge located near Espace building in town, and the circumstances surrounding how they got to Victoria from Port Glaud and all of their whereabouts since they went missing on Sunday night remains unclear.
The director for social services, Beryl Laboudallon, informed that social services are in the process of investigating the case in conjunction with the police.
“The three children are in the custody of social services and we have launched an investigation with the police to determine what exactly happened during the time they went missing and how we can help,” Ms Laboudallon stated.
“The police are looking into the information being provided by the children to establish whether there was any issue that could lead to the prosecution of anyone involved. From what we have gathered so far, it seems that they were sleeping at large and that nobody was harbouring them,” she said.
She noted that the boys, aged 11, 12 and 13 years old, are cooperating and talking to the social services about their time away from the President’s Village.
“Many are under the impression that we only started looking for them when they saw the missing person notice last night [Tuesday] but the police started their search since they were noticed missing at 6pm,” Ms Laboudallon explained.
While photos of children from homes are not supposed to be broadcasted and published on media platforms, Ms Laboudallon noted that exceptions are made in cases like these when the security and safety of a child is at risk.
It was further revealed yesterday that the same boys also went missing the weekend prior, on Friday May 22. In that first instance one of the boys returned to the President’s Village the same night, another came back on Saturday and the last on Monday.
With this second abscondment from the President’s Village in the space of two weeks, social services are working to identify if there is a pattern to their disappearances.
The three boys were placed at the President’s Village in Port Glaud, the only state home in the country which caters to both boys and girls, late last year. Forty children are presently residing at the President’s Village.
Ms Laboudallon noted that missing cases are nothing new for homes in the country since there are instances where children want to get away from the homes.
“According to our statistics over the last five years, one of the reasons why children go missing from homes is because they wanted to go back to their families. They are often found with a parent or family member,” Ms Laboudallon said.
Social services have recorded a total of fourteen children who have run away from the President’s Village during the last five years.
“No child likes to be removed from their families and they crave for an outside attachment outside of the homes they have been placed in, so a lot of them escape to go to their families and then they come back,” Ms Laboudallon added.
“However I cannot confirm if this is the case for the three boys since the investigation is ongoing. They have not been at the President’s Village for long so there is always an adaptation period; it could be that they feel uncomfortable with some children or staff but these are yet to be determined,” Ms Laboudallon explained.
She added that social services and the National Council for Children (NCC) will also have to consider whether the President’s Village is the right fit for the three boys.
Ms Laboudallon asserted that social services take these cases very seriously especially given that children who go missing are at risk of sexual assault, being taken advantage of and getting mixed up in drugs.
Elsie Pointe