FUJAIRAH // Police have tracked down the parents of a 10-year-old autistic boy who was found wandering alone in Fujairah city on Monday.
The youngster, who was wearing a nappy and showed signs of neglect, according to child-welfare officials, is now being cared for at the Child Protection Centre in Sharjah.
Maj Saeed Al Hassani, head of the media department at Fujairah Police, said the boy was Emirati, and that his family lives in Fujairah. The boy was identified by people who saw a photograph of him in an appeal made on social media and told police where to find his parents.
Maj Al Hassani said police were investigating the possibility of neglect or abuse by the parents and would act accordingly. The parents were helping police with their investigations, he said.
A member of the public found the boy alone and confused in the street on Monday evening, Maj Al Hassani said.
“When he tried to talk to the boy, he noticed that the boy suffers from a mental disability and took him to the nearest police station.
“Police tried to communicate with the boy using the help of a specialist in dealing with disabled children in order to gain some information, but without success. So we used social media in order to find his parents.”
Staff at the Department of Welfare and Rehabilitation of the Disabled at the Ministry of Social Affairs in Dubai searched through thousands of identification cards issued for people with disabilities, in the hope of finding a matching photograph of the boy to determine his identity.
Moza Al Shoomi, director of the child department, said: “We worked with the help of Fujairah police to find a place and to move the child immediately in order to receive good care. The centre in Sharjah offered to accommodate the child and he was relocated there.
“Social workers identified his condition as autistic and noticed that the boy had not had enough sleep during the past days and was wearing diapers, a [possible] sign of neglect,” said Ms Al Shoomi.
Jamila Al Mulla, a social worker at the Fujairah Rehabilitation Centre for the Disabled, said special needs children required a great deal of attention.
“I heard about this case through social media and I feel sorry for him. I deal with children with disabilities each day in the centre and I know how they feel around strangers, it’s really difficult for them and they need special care, continuous attention and supervision.
“If he suffers from autism or Down syndrome it would be very hard to get any information from him, and if his parents didn’t come forward and identify him he would be kept in a social development centre or a juveniles’ centre in a special needs unit. Children with a disability, more than anyone, need to live in a stable environment surrounded by their family’s love and care.”
rhaza@thenational.ae