My name is Georgiana Pascu and I am part of the Center for Legal Resources. In the room there are also my colleagues Valentina, Georgiana and Milena. And I coordinate the Advocacy for Dignity program. For more than 20 years, CRJ has been fighting for the rights of people with mental disabilities, institutionalized, who no longer have the strength to demand their rights or whose voice has never been heard.
On July 4th last year, shortly after 7, I started receiving messages on WhatsApp: "Turn on the TV!", "Listen to the radio! The riot police have raided several places with your kind of people"! I replied in turn with: "Let them be, I am not interested anymore". I didn’t think anyone would do anything.
The Minister of Labor at the time, Mr. Marius Budăi, had forbidden us access to the centers and, despite our complaints and the journalistic investigations published by Ovidiu Vanghele, here in the room, from the Center for Media Investigations, and Bianca Albu, from Journal of Bucharest, we had the certainty that no one would do anything.
But a little bit later, the press release from the DIICOT prosecutors announced that the leaders of the groups that had set up the business with homes for the elderly and disabled people in Ilfov and Bucharest, from which they had earned millions of euros, had been arrested. The phone was ringing non-stop: "Go and see that people are being left in the fields", "There are people locked up in the house next door", as well as messages from the category "Because of you, we, those of good faith, are being checked, looked after for a loophole, we are being fined and locked up. Let the CRJ come and take care of people".
However, one message sent us straight to the basement of another private center, this time in Mures.
"Please go and get my friends out of Min's Lil’ House," begged a young man of just 19.
On July 27, we found in the basement of the center run by two police officers- the Romanian Police and the Prison Police- and a nurse, several people locked in a basement, dehydrated, hungry, left to lay on the floor, on dirty mattresses, among pampers, rubble, sand and electrical cables.
What followed is already known: the arrest of several defendants for six months, dozens of people being questioned, medico-legal expertises.
Why us? The Center for Legal Resourcesis the only organization of human rights, watchdog type, that has requested and received, on the basis of protocols with the state, the right to visit unannounced the care centers and the psychiatric hospitals where people with mental disabilities are imprisoned in Romania. In the last 20 years I have spoken to representatives from almost all the centers in this country and I have made almost 400 visits. And I can tell you that the reality there is a disgrace for us all. It is humiliation, it is suffering, it is slow death.
What do the two moments last year have in common?
The beating, the tying up, the humiliation, the starvation, the illegal sedation, the abusive deprivation of liberty, the lack of medical or psychological recovery services, the restriction of access to family members in these centers, the total lack of defense of hundreds of people pompously called "beneficiaries of the DGASPC” - meaning of the general directorates of social assistance and child protection. Imagine that among them were also people that were children at the moment of transfer in the center from Mures. Some people died there or shortly after being removed from these private centers, for others to make a profit.
It is what the press has called "the asylums of horror" - some care institutions where these people should have been cared for with public money: 7 or even 10 000 lei per month per person. But I want to insist on something that many of us don’t recognize: these homes are not "of horrors", they are "ours". They belong to us, they represent us and reflect the way we care for the most vulnerable among us.
What happened to the beneficiaries?
First of all, two ministers fell: one from Labor and one from Family, the prosecution of several defendants began, the ones from Mureș were jailed for six months, dozens of people were sent to trial in Ilfov and Mureș, and the Prime Minister ordered checks throughout the country. It seemed that for the first time the representatives of the Romanian state had woken up and cared. But this speech did not last long.
More than a year has passed since the raids in Ilfov and Mures. Dozens of people have been indicted on charges of human trafficking, exploitation and setting up an organized criminal group. And the state "intervened" by moving the beneficiaries. But when we looked at where they were moved - we saw that, actually, it was a superficial measure.
In my mind comes the case of Alina, whom I found in the basement of the center in Mures, mentioned earlier. She was moved to other centers, where she was tied up again and later abandoned in the Obregia Psychiatric Hospital. From there the state tried again to "save" her, and kept saving her until she ended up in intensive care at the University Emergency Hospital in Bucharest. There, Alina died. And nobody was interested how this was possible. She had recently turned 18.
Basically, even when the state takes measures with these people, in the sense that it seems to want to change their lives, it doesn't automatically mean that they start to be treated with dignity. It often just means that we have hidden our shame elsewhere.
I want to show you, however, what it would be like for the beneficiaries if those who cared for them did so responsibly.
She is Mara. I found her too in the basement from Mures and it is the image that shook us all. No one gave her a chance of survival anymore. She ended up at the Don Orione center in Voluntari, and we thank the staff there, who worked wonders with her. Mara gained weight and now has the strength to smile and walk.
For some time we have been monitoring a center for young children with disabilities in Transylvania which you can also see in the video behind me.
At first glance, it seemed like an acceptable place. But a month after we found them, we bought them 16 special chairs. And this summer we ended up buying air conditioners from donations (and we thank to Alex Zlăvog), raising money to pay hundreds of hours of kinetotherapy, to bring them in Bucharest because they needed urgent medical care, which means to do what the state should have done.
Theorethically, this is not our job. We should just check, to file complaints, to make sure that these things are done. But at times like these we realize that the failure is "systemic", a reality experienced by every helpless person in these centers who still hopes to be seen. This is why we ended up also doing things that were not our responsibility.
And we are not sorry.
What has changed in the legislation?
Unfortunately, almost nothing. On paper appeared a law, we have implementing norms. We sent concrete proposals, we put pressure for legislative changes. We have said loud and clear: "We want unrestricted access to all places where people with disabilities are or can be confined. We want services in the community. We want efficient controls from the authorities. We want clear rules. We want minimum standards of dignity."
The norms have changed partially and only on paper. Even worse, however, is that the centers have reorganized themselves and hid under different titles, such as "private hostels", out of our sight, where neither the authorities nor we, the CRJ, can enter. Still, the directors of private or state-run centers are doing their best to hide the lives of the beneficiaries in their care.
They don't let us enter in the centers, they're annoyed that we ask for documents, they call even three police squads believing that this is how they intimidate us. We often see how the state turns a blind eye and throws money wherever it can find a place to hide the vulnerable people, whether it's a licensed center or a house in a field, without the slightest trace of security.
One good thing has happened though: DIICOT prosecutors have admitted our request to legally represent the victims in Mures and Ilfov, including the request that we, CRJ, become a party in the criminal cases. This means, at least theoretically, recognizing our role and setting a possible precedent.
I conclude with a collective exercise. Imagine that, one day, in a center, CRJ finds a parent, a grandparent, a sister, a brother, a loved one, with a first and last name. Bound, sedated, starving. Though we may feel overwhelmed and helpless, it's not true. Each of us has a responsibility to change this situation.
First, let's stop looking the other way. If you know that there is a 'hostel' near you that may be sheltering vulnerable people, find out, ask questions. If you suspect abuse, do not remain silent. Speak up, call the police, the authorities, report it to organizations like CRJ. Sometimes just the fact that someone knows they are being watched can make a huge difference.
Secondly, be informed and inform others as well. Talk to neighbors, friends, family. Tell them that this system, these centers, are not about "others". They are about us all. What kind of society do we want to have when that moment comes for us or our loved ones?
Thirdly, the press has a crucial role. Journalists must continue to investigate, not let stories die after a few days of sensationalism. But it is up to us, the public, to demand these investigations, to support the press that does its job and keeps the spotlight on the real issues.
In the centers from Romania more than 50,000 people are still locked up: minors, adults and elderly people with disabilities. We cannot change over night a corrupt and incapable system, but we can start to put pressure on these people not to be left to die in silence or to be treated as a commodity that makes money. We cannot just rely on the state, a few NGOs or investigative journalists. It is about each and every one of us.
