Protection of missing children

In 2017, European number for missing children in Serbia 116000 received calls regarding missing children, missing babies (suspected to have been abducted from maternity wards from 1960 till nowadays in Serbia) and other calls.

Reports for missing children concerned 11 children: 8 girls and 3 boys. Out of this number, 10 children are citizens of Serbia, and 1 child is a foreign citizen. Information was provided by parents (6), cousin (1), NGOs from abroad (1), Social welfare center (2) and police (1). The reasons for the disappearance are: runaways (6), parental abduction (3) and lost or otherwise disappeared children (2). Six children were found and the search continues for 3 children. We do not have feedback for two children. Also, one child whose disappearance from the institution was reported at the end of 2016, was found in early 2017.

During 2017 159 calls for missing babies were received, and 47 new cases of parents' suspicion that their children were stolen were recorded.

Regardless of the fact that the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has sent several requests to Serbia to take the necessary measures to adopt the Law on missing babies, in 2017, there were no significant movements in this direction. A few days ago we have received information from our associates that the Ministry of Justice organized a meeting with some representatives of the parent’s associations, agreed and adopted some changes the Draft Law and after that forwarded to the Parliament for adoption. The process itself was not transparent and until a few days ago this document was not available.

Parents expected justice and that the truth will finally be established. Many of them, feels like again surviving an intimate drama and feel as if somebody again denies human and parental rights. Regarding all this, the role of the SOS consultant is to listen to the parents, support them, monitoring the status of the draft law, when and how it will be adopted and informing parents about that. These days we are facing the situation that parents suspect that the law will not change their situation and they are desperate for it.

Based on previous knowledge, it is certain that in a number of cases happened organized abduction and sale of children, and it would not be good for these cases to remain unclear. It is necessary for the state authorities to consider all the circumstances and to determine whether there was any abuse. The truth should come to the light after all.