Barred: The aid workers who exposed Romania's orphan abuse
Barred: The aid workers who exposed Romania's orphan abuse
By DANIEL BOFFEY, The Mail on Sunday
Last updated at 22:51 09 September 2006
Storm: Aid workers who exposed Romania's orphan abuse have
been forced out of their jobs
Aid workers accused of helping expose the abuse of children in Romanian
hospitals have been forced out of their jobs.
One nurse working for the American charity Rock Ministries revealed how local
child authorities banned her after an outcry over news pictures of orphans
strapped to their beds for hours on end.
The young woman, who had been working in Oradea and wished to remain
anonymous, said: "I knew this would happen. The images are everywhere but they
live in denial."
Six staff from the UK charity The Smiles Foundation working in the same
institution have also been told to go.
The charity said last night: "We were caring for abandoned, abused and
neglected children. We were changing them, feeding them, stimulating them
through play - all the things lacking within the state system.
"The state hospitals are stretched in their resources and charitable
organisations have been doing this caring job to tremendous effect with hundreds
of children benefiting. Now we have been told to leave."
The EU has been handed evidence of abuse in the homes and hospitals, as ITV
News's Chris Rogers reported in The Mail on Sunday's Live magazine reported last
week.
Romania will be told in two weeks whether it has successfully reached
required standards to join the EU as full member state. The country had claimed
it was improving care for orphans.
Robin Nides, a spokesman representing 50 charities across Romania, said: "The
central government do not want this abuse to happen but the problem is that the
child protection service is decentralised. Some are vindictive and some are
not."
But Bogdan Panait, the head of The Romanian Child Rights Protection
Authority, hit back over the claims, saying: "The children that are allegedly
malnourished have been identified but their weakness is specific to their
disability. One of them is very aggressive and this is why he is tied up to his
wheelchair. It is the psychiatrist who recommended this."
Theodora Bertzi, Romania's Secretary of State for Adoptions, said that
legislation designed to prevent children being left in hospitals needed to be
implemented.