Mogilino fails regulations

The social care home at Mogilino met only one of the 26 standards outlined in existing regulations, an investigation carried out by Bulgaria's State Agency for Child Protection (SACP) at the request of the Supreme Cassation Prosecution Office found. Bistras Petrova, the SACP's child rights director, announced the failings to the Bulgarian Parliament on March 6.

According to news reports this was the first time a Bulgarian official acknowledged that the care provided at the Mogilino home did not meet legal requirements.

In response, Hugh Russell from The Campaign for Bulgaria's Abandoned Children said 'This is an important step forward. For too long the government response has been to deny any problems and to try and discredit Kate Blewett's film and our campaign. But now it's a government appointed agency announcing the failures of social care provision and the government will find it hard to argue an anti-Bulgarian conspiracy story this time.'

Despite the findings of the SACP investigation, Mogilino village mayor Dimitar Dimitrov told the committee that the facilities at the home met all requirements, once again voicing his fear that if the home was shut down, that would leave 60 people from the village, who are now working there, unemployed.

Mogilino home director Pavlina Iordanova also argued against shutting down the facility, saying that a medical check-up of the children showed that some of them would not be able to adapt to new surroundings if they were moved. She asked for at least some of the children to remain in the home, which, if necessary, could be transformed into a “small group home”.

The check at the Mogilino home resulted in an explicit recommendation that it needed to be closed down along with another six similar institutions.