814 children were taken away from their parents last year: Violence was reported in 103 cases

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Last year alone, 8,365 reports of violence against minors were recorded in centers for social welfare in Serbia, which is only six cases fewer than in 2019. However, when comparing this data to that from 2015, the number of reports increased by almost a third and 814 children have been taken away from their biological families, Novosti writes.

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Minors are most often emotionally abused and this type of violence was recorded in cases concerning as many as 3,343 girls and boys, while 2,685 were neglected or treated carelessly. Data from the Republic Institute for Social Protection also shows that 2,129 children suffered physical violence, 193 were sexually abused, while 23 experienced exploitation.

"814 children were removed from biological families last year, and there are more girls than boys on that list," the Institute said.

"Most of them, a total of 325, were between 6 and 14 years of age, followed by a group of 192 children in the category of newborns to two-year-olds. The most common reason for removing them was inadequate parental care, in 444 cases, violence was the reason 103 times, followed by absence of parental care or their inability to exercise parental rights, which means the parents were serving a prison sentence, undergoing hospital treatment, or had serious physical or mental illness..."

Inadequate care means that parents would force children to beg, steal, engage in other criminal activities, while the absence of parental care is any kind of neglect and lack of proper care.

It is interesting that during 2020, there were no such reports by courts. Regardless of reasons, 485 girls and boys were placed with foster parents, i.e., in family accommodation, 148 children were set to shelters, 114 ended up with relatives, while 48 were sent to homes for abandoned children.

"If there is violence or abuse in the family, the competent center for social welfare conducts an expert procedure based on the received report, which starts by assessing the overall situation related to the family. In accordance with the obtained results, protection measures are planned," the Institute's representatives said.

"Children can only be displaced from their families with a court decision, and the center for social welfare can in that case refer them to accommodation in a foster family or some appropriate institution."

A measure of corrective supervision over the exercise of parental rights can also be imposed on parents, which includes mandatory counseling and supervision by welfare center experts concerning their functioning in relation to children, counseling measures in terms of correcting parental behavior, and in cases of gross abuse, moms and dads can lose their parental rights completely.

"After a center for social welfare conducts comprehensive professional assessment, a proposal is made as to what is the best solution for a particular child. Only by a court decision can a child be placed in one of the institutions for education of children and youth, noting that these are institutions are not closed and do not restrict freedom. They work with children in terms of correcting their behavior," this institution stressed.

Data on perpetrators of violence is collected for all victims of violence, said the Republic Institute for Social Protection. There are no separate statistics about perpetrators against children. Thus, they recorded 36,656 reports of violence, of which the majority, slightly more than 26,000, came from the police, while 3,354 came from courts and prosecutors.

Family members reported violence 1,682 times, and 825 reports came from public institutions such as healthcare centers, schools, kindergartens...

(Telegraf.rs)