Prosecutor-General Maros Zilinka along with his deputy Jozef Sedlak made an unannounced visit to the Trstin re-education centre on Tuesday and criticised what he saw as catastrophic conditions unworthy of care for underage children in the 21st century.
"Today's visit has also reinforced my conviction about the necessity of introducing conceptual and systemic changes to the state care of children. The changes must guarantee the creation of such conditions so as to enable re-education centre employees to carry out their task to the best interest of the children," underlined Zilinka in his social network post.
Based on this personal visit as well, Zilinka finds his request to address Parliament, for which he asked on January 17, even more urgent.
Over the past year, the Prosecutor-General's Office carried out a series of inspections at re-education centres in Slovakia and has come to the conclusion that the centres fail to meet their purpose and don't provide a safe space to children that would respect their rights. The Prosecutor-General's Office finds it alarming that a state of affairs exists that enables sexual violence against children in re-education centres to take place, even repeatedly.
(TASR)
