In judicial decisions are highlighted individual and general prevention, but not
the educational supervision.
During the inspections in both boarding schools where girls are accommodated
the experts of the Ombudsman found that a significant proportion of them are victims of
pimping and trafficking and prior to their placement in boarding schools they have been
forced into prostitution. This fact is a serious test of the system of child protection and
its interaction with the sanctioning system.
Lack of psychological support to these children to overcome the trauma of
violence and coercion against them was established. This problem is related to the
perception of such children as "offenders" but not as "victims". During interviews with
the staff representatives the NPM stated that they are not perceived as defenders of
children and conveniently displayed the idea that girls are prostituted on their own.
There is a lack of skills and techniques in the staff to deal with the consequences of
violence.
Another systemic problem in working with victims of pimping and
trafficking is the lack of a mechanism for prevention, protection and isolation of
these children from the pimping network while staying in boarding schools. The
system does not provide adequate measures to reintegrate these girls in society in a way
that will not make them become again victims of trafficking and pimping.
Medical care
Much of boarding schools do not employ a medical professional. All inmates are
included automatically in the list of patients of a GP from the respective location. Once a
year, mandatory standard screening with anthropometric examinations are carried out.
Inmates are examined by a physician only on a specific occasion.
There were no medical equipment, no separate manipulation and emergency
cabinet in most boarding schools inspected.
In reviewing the medical records the NPM found that sometimes no
outpatient cards of all primary and secondary medical examinations and
consultations of the girls and boys accommodated in the boarding schools were
available. Furthermore, the existing medical documents – discharge summaries,
outpatient cards, test results, etc., are not stored in separate individual medical files but
are "scattered" among other medical documents in a common file.
Some of the children arrive at the boarding school without accompanying
medical documents. Therefore, almost half of them are of unclear health and especially
immunization status. In some of the cases, letters to the municipalities from which the
inmates come are written, requesting additional medical information. Such letters,
however, rarely works - the most frequent answer is "no information available". Under
current legislation such lack of information should not exist. All children and persons
living or staying in the territory of Bulgaria are included in the patients' list of GPs. Such
lists in electronic format are stored in the database of the National Health Insurance
Fund (NHIF) and its subsidiaries. The same applies to all examinations and
immunizations for which information is transferred on a monthly basis in the units of
NHIF.
Much of the girls accommodated in RBS - village of Podem, are at risk in medical
sense. About 30% of them were involved in prostitution and in the taking and/or
distribution of psychoactive substances (drugs). These two factors, even individually,
represent exceptional health risk, and the combination of them is particularly worrying.
During the inspections the experts of the Ombudsman found cases of
children with chronic diseases. Some of them are diagnosed with epilepsy, and often
have seizures. One case of HIV-positive child was established as well. The practice of
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