No significant increase in missing person reports since 2020 - Home Minister

PUTRAJAYA: Reports on missing persons have been on a static trend, recording about 900 cases every year since 2020, according to Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.

He said that, for almost five years now, there has been no significant increase in cases of missing persons as claimed on social media.

"Between 2020 and June 2024, the trend of police reports on missing person incidents remains at about 900.

"Of the total, 85 to 90 per cent of the missing persons were found," he told a press conference after the ministry's monthly assembly here today.

Saifuddin Nasution said this in response to the case involving a six-year-old girl who was found safe at a budget hotel in Batang Kali, Selangor, early today, after being reported missing at a shopping mall in Iskandar Puteri, Johor, last Saturday.

The minister said the commitment of the police and the ministry was clear that a case involving a missing person was a serious matter and immediate action would be taken.

Therefore, he said the public should play their role by lodging reports on any missing person to the police, anytime, anywhere.

Every police station across the country can take a missing person report, he added.

-- BERNAMA