Police and the Ministry of Health and Family have confirmed they are concurrently investigating a “very serious” case of child abuse.
Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam confirmed a number of children had been taken to hospital, but did not divulge further details.
Minivan News understands four children were taken to Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) by ministry workers yesterday to undergo medical examination following allegations.
Inspector Mirufath Faiz, head of the family and child protection unit, said the children had suffered from physical abuse and neglect. She explained authorities were withholding all information for the sake of the investigation.
“There are so many things we need to find out,” she said. “When we have more information that we can share, we will share it.”
Deputy Minister of Health and Family Mariya Ali said all details are being withheld for the protection of the children.
“We have the childrens’ best interest in mind, and that means we cannot give out any information that might put them in danger,” she said.
Mohamed Shihaab of Child Abuse Watch Maldives said he understood the authorities’ fear that evidence would be corrupted, or that the families of the abused children would suffer more if their identities are known.
“There is no need to disclose the identities of the children or their families, but the incident needs to be reported. It’s important that the community knows if something like this is happening,” he said.
Shihaab said he believed people are not reporting incidents for several reasons, one of them being the lack of confidentiality for the victims. The other is the need to provide witnesses so an abuse case is taken seriously.
“People need to know that justice will be carried out,” he says. “If they do not have enough evidence, their case could be dismissed.”
IGMH has not commented on, or confirmed, the case.
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Child abuse is one of the biggest problems our country faces. We need to make sure that the appropriate steps are taken and that the authorities and families have all the support of the public. Current estimates put over a third of Maldivian children experiencing abuse. This is not okay. This is not acceptable.
welcome to the 21 century 100%muslims world!again brave police do nothing.it is funny, every island have police station ,population is not so big, but to find and arrest some maniac or sick sadist police cannot do anythings .where is spy?or secret agent?hehe.why?because heavy corruption .
When Salim Waheed says 'We need to make sure that the appropriate steps' I hope he means appropriate legal and institutional safeguards and remedies to prevent such a thing from happening again. This is not the first time a child abuse case surfaced recently. Does he mean nothing was done after previous incidences... and this particular incident finally warrants some action by the Government.
Anyways, we hope some concrete steps are taken by on this very heinous and barbaric form of human rights violation..
Yes Ali, absolutely nothing sufficient has been done after previous incidents of the barbaric and heinous incidents of child abuse, through "appropriate legal and institutional safeguards and remedies to prevent such a thing from happening again."...
Child abuse cases that are surfacing shows that nothing concrete is being done by the Government on issues that involve common people. If the issue is about resorts or business community, all MPs would be on it.
This indicates how hopelessly weak the opposition is and why democracy will never happen in our lifetime.
salim, could you please name any sick pathetic crime which is not here in this tiny country? and do you know where we are lacking? yes that's our beloved izaitheri bodu musaara kaagen thibey raiayathunge majlis memberun (MPS), drugs. killing, gangs, etc .. but these mps are after the government or the opposition party, if only they could come up with one single rule to isolate these horrendous sick people from our society, we don't need any qaazee's to give them jail free cards .. thank you
Ali, I would want to put faith in our belief and commitment to make it right. I believe it will happen. It is the determination of people like yourself and many others who will not accept anything short of a reasonable solution that ensures a defenitive remedy.
For now I would accept the word of Police and GOM that details not be released as it might hinder ivestigations and the childrens well being. However, as a father and a Maldivian Citizen i want to know the form and circumstances that allowed the abuse be made public ASAP.
Salim Waheed or anyone out there concerned, can one tell me what is not abused in this country, leave a side child abuse!
The parliament is on leave annual leave!
Members are conveniently flying about with abundant cash they have made for themselves within the year!
Some settling down families in foreign countries! Buying flats and doing business and whatnot!
Judiciary and the Black Coats are all united with one-thing in mind "eat from both ends"!
Government is lamed with a "not working" constitution to be practiced!
So, please can anyone tell me what can go right?
But, let us hope things will be right!
We can't keep BE hoping, it's time for Implementing and MUST DO JUSTICES !!! i call government please reconsider what we can do to bring justices
Hope they'll find enough evidence to suffice a conviction............... 😀
Its about time, we the people of this country, took a vote on whether or not we have confidence in the MPs we elected! Sure we elected them, but since they are not doing their job in protecting our rights, we should also call for their resignation! This country is not running as a charity whereby we give all the benefits that the MPs are getting, for them to just talk happy thoughts and do nothing! Why isn't anyone brave enough to tackle the social issues getting so out of control in this country!
Another case that will go on without any of the offender(s) recieving a sentence, or even if they recieve one, it will be only like 1 month in jail or so.
Where's our justice? Do you want kids under abuse being attacked again and again?
How come evryone's pointing at the mp's? Why not the vice president who has no work to do daily at office take this kind of cases and try to do something for the country? At least something in return for the fat salary he's taking every month and the trips on public money to visit his children "studying" overseas? after all he and his family have been living abroad for ages now and only now came back and try to show that they talk on our poor peoples behalf. We who have been here since birth, without running off and hiding in a foreign country have suffered and continue to suffer.