'Alarming increase' in number
of runaways
Straits Times. Dec 14,1997
BY Ginnie Teo
THEY run away from home and live with groups of teenagers. Their money comes from a variety of illegal jobs or from prostitution.
Unlike before, when they would come home within days because they had no income and nowhere to go, today's teen runaways may stay away for as long as a year.
It has all changed now. The youngsters work illegally and stay with friends, say social workers and counsellors who have noted an alarming increase in runaways over the last two years.
The Bukit Ho Swee Family Service Centre, for example, has dealt with 10 cases this year, where it used to have one or two cases a year before.
Some of the runaways stay away so long that their parents give up looking for them.
This new breed of teenager worries the social workers.
Said Mr Gerard Ee, the Bukit Ho Swee centre's coordinator: "We're not talking about teenagers who stay away from home for a few days and then return home. The cases we're talking about are the really problematic ones who disappear for a long time."
From hardly any cases before, he said, "this year, we've had 10 such cases".
Marymount Centre, which runs a welfare home for children, young girls and women, has been seeing more of these cases in recent years, but does not have figures.
Its director, Mrs June Wong, said: "When the girls are sent to us, their parents are at their wit's end. Many of them have already given up trying to get the girls to stay home."
Teenagers run away for different reasons.
Most are escaping from problems they face at home, such as an abusive parent, while others simply want a taste of freedom. Some teenagers run away to hurt their parents or merely to irritate them.
But where do they go at night?
Many of them end up camping out at friends' homes, said Mr Eric Low, chairman of the Students Care Service and honorary secretary of the National Council of Social Service.
He said: "Their friends' parents don't chase them out and allow them to stay for a long time because the runaway teen would tell a sob story about how they've problems at home, how their parents are away and they're all alone."
Their friends' parents do not check with the runaway teenager's family because they are too busy with work or cannot be bothered.
Marymount Centre's Mrs Wong said: "They live on their friends' charity. They have a group of friends who will watch out for each other." Bukit Ho Swee's Mr Ee added: "The gang members will give the runaway some money and the runaway will become indebted. They develop a sense of loyalty to the group."
Without pocket money from their parents, the teenagers take on a variety of jobs. Some of the underaged boys work illegally as waiters at discotheques or restaurants, the social workers said.
Mr Ee said: "It's very easy for a 15-year-old to make $1,800 to $2,000 a month. Just go and work at a restaurant at Clarke Quay or Boat Quay. The boys like the long hours, the excitement and no one really checks on them."
Runaway girls may find work as karaoke hostesses or waitresses. Mrs Wong said: "We've come across cases when the mamasan or pub owner will put them up. It's easy money, they can make $1,000 a night in tips."
Working in pubs and lounges can lead to some customers, such as businessmen, taking in the young girls as mistresses, the social workers said.
Mrs Wong added: "But the worst case scenario is when the girls resort to prostituting themselves for money. They are misled by the older girls who tell them it's easy money."
Summing up, Mr Ee said: "There're more opportunities now for young people to survive when they run away because they have a support system out there, aside from their families. Society has evolved and the family is not that strong."