The Ombudsperson’s Office said the case when a child aged one year died frozen on the street where he was forgotten by his inebriated mother is terrible and reveals serious problems in the field of the mother and child protection, IPN reports.

The Ombudswoman for Children’s Rights Maia Bănărescu recommends employing specialists in children’s rights at all the mayor’s offices of the country given that the community social assistants have a heavy workload and cannot effectively become involved to ensure the protection of children in situations of risk. “We cannot save money at the expense of children. The country where the children die frozen on the street cannot have a future,” stated the ombudswoman.

She noted a meeting with decision makers of the central level should be convoked to examine this case so as to ensure the judicial and institutional framework needed to prevent such tragedies and to ensure the protection of children in situations of risk.

According to Maia Bănărescu, the weak ring is inside the local public authorities given the shortcomings existing in the functioning of the intersector cooperation mechanism for identifying, assessing, assisting and supervising child victims and potential victims of violence, negligence, exploitation and trafficking. This mechanism should be improved.

A one-year-old child without signs of life was found on the roadside in a village of Nisporeni district. The police took legal action and will start a criminal case when the results of the medical-legal examination are ready. The child’s mother, a woman aged 29 from Nisporeni district, told the police that she wanted to pay a visit to her neighbors and took the child with her. But she was under the influence of alcohol and doesn’t remember where she lost the child. She returned home alone. The woman has one more child aged ten. She risks being deprived of parental rights for this child and serving up to four years in jail.