Two more cases of sexually abused girls in state care


A case of a 13-year old Roma girl, who became pregnant after years of sexual abuse, it seems isn’t an isolated case involving girls sheltered in an institution for troubled youngsters in Skopje. The European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) reported about similar testimonies shared by two Roma sisters, who have been reportedly sexually abused.

Namely, the girls, aged 16 and 13, had gone missing from the May 25 center in Skopje many times, but their disappearances have never been reported to the police or to their parents.

They said they had been taken by an older man from the center and driven to the Old Railway Station in downtown Skopje, where they were sexually abused.

Their mother, the ERRC says, has reported it to the police. She also took them to a gynecologist who confirmed that the girls were indeed subject to sexual violence.

Sendada Ali, a lawyer with the ERRC, has told MIA that the Center supports the parents of the three sexually abused teenagers to sue the May 25 institution sheltering young people with social problems, the inter-municipal center for social work and the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy.

On 26 January 2017, a court in Skopje ordered reinstatement of her parental rights over the two girls, Ali said adding that the center is still ignoring the court decision preventing her from taking her daughters home.

Meanwhile, the Skopje inter-municipal center for social work in November 2017 reached a decision that the mother lacked appropriate conditions to take care of her children, even though the factual situation was not fully determined.

“A complaint was filed to the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy because the girls aren’t returned yet to their mother,” said Ali.

In the meantime, the two girls have been put in foster homes.