Foster children violently abused in Hungarian group home?

Following a number of allegations of severely disadvantaged children living in unacceptable conditions in the institution in Kalocsa, the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights of Hungary ordered an inspection of the facility, the results of which were recently published.

As hvg.hu writes, the group home has long been the subject of media attention and subsequent investigations due to reports of aggressive behaviour, involving both caretakers and kids, the run-down state of the building, and the lack of proper pedagogical work. For instance, in 2013, four children living at the home were tried for hitting a teacher over the head with a metal rod, in an attempt to steal the keys of the institution and escape. In 2014, magyarnarancs.hu published an investigative piece about the group home, in which former employees and residents spoke of their experiences, revealing some truly shocking facts. According to their accounts,

kids were routinely fed tranquilisers, and there were examples of students being taken to a prison on a “field trip” or left alone while their teachers sat drinking on a nearby sports field.

This was followed up by an inspection in 2016 which mentioned further problems, such as the fluctuation and unpreparedness of employees and the use of cigarettes as a way of controlling students, that is, confiscating them in the case of misbehaviour and offering them as an incentive to get children to cooperate.

In 2020, 24.hu published a series of articles about the group home, in which, in addition to shedding light on further violent acts (such as the nose and nipples of a student being twisted with pliers by a teacher) occurring within the walls of the institution, they also wrote about another scandal: as 444.hu had uncovered,