UN concerned about increasing number of Moldovan ‘social orphans’

Nine percent of the children of three communities in northern, central and southern Moldova are left behind by their both parents working abroad, while 28 percent of the children live with one of the parents, the report themed “Children left without parental care due to migration”, carried out by UNICEF Moldova and Children Rights Information and Documentation Centre (CRIDOC). The research was presented Friday, December 8 during a press conference by the representatives of UNICEF and CRIDOC. Mohamed Azzedine Salah, UNICEF Moldova programme coordinator, told the press conference that the UN is concerned about the massive migration and increasing number of children left behind by migrant parents. Special support provided by UNICEF-Moldova in this respect, is the funding of the studies of children in Moldova, especially of those about 200,000 minors who, due to migration, remained or grow with one of the parents. As CRIDOC executive director Cezar Gavriliuc states, in the last five years it was registered an increase in the number of these children, at least in the communities where the report was carried out. Thus, if in 2000 two percent of the children lived without both parents, in 2005 this figure was set at 7%. The 2000 year witnessed 18% of the children living with one of the parents, in five years their rate was set at 31%. The results of the report reveal that these children recognise their parents’ efforts to earn money, but they feel a lack of moral support and communication. At the same time, the children having their parents left abroad think their relations with the temporary guardians are not close enough and they do not offer them moral support. As the experts state, the children’s relations with their neighbours is more difficult. Children’s school results and their conduct leave much to be desired. They are always in a state of permanent depression – become sorrowful, isolated, have feelings of insecurity, some of them practice aggressive ways to express their feelings, and they feel frustrated at the parents’ departure. They often decide to abandon school and the gravest thing is they resort to drugs, sexually precocious relations and other risky behaviours. The study’s authors think both authorities and the entire society must get involved in preventing children’s abandonment providing different activities, as reintegration of parents returning from abroad, create a proper investment climate so they can benefit from the invested money, create community centres for children, increase activities for organising spare time for children, create supporting groups among neighbours, etc.