The police last year started over 500 criminal cases in which 558 children were victims of offenses. In 212 cases, the minors were victims of sexual offenses. Sixty-nine of the children were sexually abused in the own family. In 39 of the cases, the abusers were close relatives, while in 27 cases these were minors. In 16 of the cases, the children were sexually abused by fathers, while in 14 cases by concubines. The data were presented by the General Police Inspectorate in a news conference on May 20, IPN reports

The Inspectorate’s deputy head Marin Maxian said that in over 100 cases the children became victims of all forms of violence, not only sexual one. Also, over 120 cases of violence were recorded in education institutions. These were primarily cases of physical violence.

Last year, the police intervened in over 440 cases of forced removal of children from the family, while in over 300 cases – in an emergency regime. “This mechanism enabled us not to leave the children in a risky environment where they can be further abused and subject to violence. These children are referred immediately to professional parent assistants or other services designed to ensure a safe environment,” stated Marin Maxian.

Over 1,880 contravention cases were stated against parents over negligence, abuse, violence or non-ensuring of the children’s access to studies.

Anastasia Gruzin, division head at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection, said the number of reports concerning cases of negligence, abuse, exploitation and traffic was high in 2020. At the end of last year, the number of such cases exceeded 6,800. The figure does not necessarily point to a rise in the number of cases, but underlines the professionalism of the specialists reporting them.