Family-friendly Hungary: Horrific reports of child abuse and neglect in state care facility
08 September 2025
Shocking images of abuse and neglect from a children’s home – including one of an eighteen-month-old boy tied to a radiator with a scarf – were broadcast in a report by RTL’s Házon kíló on 17 August. The report, which revealed accounts of sexual and violent abuse of young residents by some staff, included images of teenagers sleeping on filthy mattresses, a five-year-old with a cut wrist, and smashed glass doors.
One young victim, who waived anonymity, spoke publicly of how when she arrived at the home, she was shouted at and forcefully grabbed by one of the childminders, who was drunk, and according to the report, routinely beat the boys and molested the girls. When she went to the management with the accusations, she wasn’t believed. Even when one of the adult colleagues reported the abuser’s actions to the police, no action was taken. Eventually the abuser voluntarily resigned, “but was then hired by another church-run child protection institution because he passed the impeccable conduct test.”
A former employee, Csaba Szabó, said management didn’t believe him either when he voiced his concerns. He said he was called into the office and was spoken to in a threatening manner by both the director and the institution's lawyer, and told he would be disciplined for providing the children with the contact information of the children's rights representative. Staff who reported problems were repeatedly ignored in the hope that they would just tire of the situation and leave of their own volition. The report also revealed that management turned a blind eye to signals of deep concern from the infant department, where children under the age of three who had been taken from their families were placed.
As reported in hvg.hu, serious cases also occurred in other institutions of the county's specialised service, a 14-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a supervisor, who occasionally took her out of the home and offered the girl to his friends. According to a worker at a home in Kisújszállás, where the girl was later transferred, the man was arrested by police, but the case was subsequently dropped due to lack of evidence.
In response to questions from RTL concerning the abuse and neglect at the Szolnok reception home, the National Child Protection Service and the management of the home, merely responded that “they do not tolerate violence against children and that they will investigate all reports.”
Disproportionate numbers of Romani children in state care and vulnerable to abuse
ERRC research and litigation over the years has exposed how Romani children are grossly overrepresented in the care system. Many children are caught in a cruel snare of poverty and racism, where institutional discrimination and dysfunctional child-protection systems result in huge numbers of Romani kids being placed in state-run care homes, where there is precious little by way of care. Worse still, some of these vulnerable youngsters become victims of abuse and exploitation.
In 2018, the ERRC collaborated with BBC documentary-maker Stacey Dooley, who revealed the shocking plight of Romani children in Hungary, taken from their families and exposed to violence and sexual exploitation within the care system. She met with distraught mothers whose children had been taken into care, who spoke of their powerlessness to protect their children from abuse in the institutions. She exposed cases where pimps were grooming vulnerable young girls, where care workers seemed unbothered, and took no action to prevent the girls’ drift into prostitution.
One mum described the situation as ‘the stuff of nightmares’, others spoke of how they lived in fear of mayors or other authority figures who had threatened to take their children away. It became clear that this threat operates as a means of social control and coercion, made all the more real because of the hugely disproportionate number of Romani children taken into state care.
The nightmares continue, according to this latest report from RTL. In an open letter addressed to the Directorate General for Social and Child Protection, Rácz Béla, the president of 1Magyarország Egyesület (the 1 Hungary Association) and dozens of signatories, demanded an immediate, independent investigation; that the accused be held accountable, and to investigate whether his placement in another institution is legal, and whether there is coordinated cooperation with the church maintainer in order to avoid such incidents. The letter also called for protection for whistleblowers and child rights advocates; the provision of adequate staffing, support and resources; and that the authorities communicate transparently and publicly about next steps.
