Approximately 170 police inspectors for minors and vice are taking part in a seminar on the combating of sexual exploitation of children between April 21 and 25, Info-Prim Neo reports. The instructive symposium is organized by the Ministry of the Interior and UNICEF. The police officers are instructed by the trainers Tim Gerrish and Joe Sullivan from the UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center. The inspectors will learn how to interview victimized children and witnesses and how to work with sex offenders. Analyzing case studies, the policemen will acquire skills in identifying and preventing cases of child sexual abuse, labor exploitation, commercial exploitation, child pornography, sexual offences on the Internet, etc. The seminar is very important given the harsh realities, the UNICEF Representative in Moldova Ray Virgilio Torres said at the opening of the seminar. One third of the children in Moldova grow up without one or both of the parents, while migration continues to develop. At the same time, the sexual abuse is a very sensitive issue. In practically all the states of the world, the violence against children and women are considered private themes discussed only within the family and this is not right, Ray V. Torres said. The UNICEF Representative said that the law enforcement bodies have to make a way into the families because in most of the cases, the abusers are members of the family, neighbors, family friends, unknown persons. Mihai Cibotaru, the head of the Interior Ministry’s Public Order Division, stressed that juvenile delinquency is expanding, while the children that remained without parental care as a result of migration are an easy target for offenders. They become involved in criminal activities as well as victims. According to the latest official statistics, about 100,000 children are deprived of the care of one or both parents. But the real number is much higher, Mihai Cibotaru said. The inspectors for minors consider that the skills acquired during the seminar will be of real use. Parascovia Maidan, senior inspector of the Hancesti Minors Manners Group, says that the inspectors will learn how to communicate with the suspect minors and with the minor victims without traumatizing them even more; how to help them express their sorrows and tell what happened to them. The children are usually scared and reticent while talking with police officers. When they get to police departments, they are afraid they will be taken to penitentiaries or special schools, Parascovia Maidan said. A similar training seminar was earlier taught to judges, officers from law enforcement agencies, representatives of the nongovernmental sector and of the local public authorities. Early in June, UNICEF, in partnership with the Ministry of Social Protection, Family and Child, will organize another instructive symposium for social workers on violence against children.