News

30 July 2025

Ombudsman Velislava Delcheva notified Acting Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov, the Chair of the Local Commission for Combating Minor and Juvenile Social Ills in Sliven Pepa Chilikova, the Minister of Education and Science Krasimir Valchev, the Executive Director of the Social Assistance Agency Anna Ananieva and the Chair of the State Agency for Child Protection Teodora Ivanova regarding alarming alerts from UNICEF Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee to report severe violence against children in the Hristo Botev boarding school in the village of Varnentsi, Municipality of Toutrakan.

The Ombudsman emphasized that the information had been collected within the framework of projects implemented by the organizations, during which interviews were conducted with children placed, following court decisions, in the institution in Varnentsi.

The children and their parents reported systematic and recurrent grave violations against the rights of children.

“Among the collected data there are allegations of physical, sexual and psychological violence committed by both staff of the boarding school and by other children, forcing the children into hard labor and exploitation, punishments through physical exhaustion, limited access to communication with the world beyond the walls of the institution,“ Ombudsman Delcheva wrote.

She added that the information had been compiled and submitted to the Ombudsman in writing and in it, the children themselves testify to serious violations committed by the boarding school staff in the village of Varnentsi and by other children.

“The interviews involved four children placed in the boarding facility who at the time of the interviews were on summer holidays and were staying with their parents. The children were interviewed in the presence of a parent or another adult whom the children esteem highly. According to the information provided by the organizations that approached the Ombudsman, parents of some of the children had already filed reports of crimes committed to the District Prosecutor’s Office in Sliven and the District Prosecutor’s Office in Silistra and Pretrial Proceedings No. 19/2025 were initiated as per the docket of the District Prosecutor’s Office in Silistra,” the Ombudsman emphasized.

Regarding the serious claims in her capacity of a National Preventive Mechanism, the Ombudsman, within the scope of her powers, on 24 July 2025 carried out an unexpected inspection in the boarding school in the village of Varnentsi where minor and underage boys were placed.

The team found that the living conditions of the children were not good. Efforts are clearly being made to maintain elementary hygiene as the bedrooms were clean and tidy, but the bed linen was very shabby and the mattresses were torn and here and there were gutted. The temperature in the rooms on 24 July was 39 degrees Centigrade, like in a furnace, which is to be attributed to the lack of air conditioning but also to the lack of curtains or blinds on the windows. The sanitation facilities were in a deplorable state, with only one bathroom on the floor of the bedrooms, unlike the one for the staff, which was in a far more acceptable state. During the inspection, the Ombudsman’s team came upon eleven children who, according to their stories, had their heads shaved bald and that is strongly reminiscent of the detention centers for children from the 1970s. The school principal confirmed the bald shaving and explained it was resorted to for the easier maintenance of hygiene for boys in the summer. The black eye of one of the younger children produced a strong impression and the boy explained that he had been injured while playing football. During a conversation it turned out that four or five of the boys who, as they said, were in the 6^th and 7^th grade, cannot read at all, or else could barely spell, without, however, comprehending what they had read, although with difficulty. To the questions “Do you like the food?” and “Is the food enough?”, the Ombudsman’s team received affirmative answers. Asked whether they have a psychologist, practically none of the children guessed what that was. After the explanation that he/she is an adult to talk to and who would listen to them as they tell how they feel, who would help them when they are sad, and suchlike, the children did not guess again until one of the boys, vaguely though, suggested that “may be it is the lady who teaches…” Later, the principal confirmed that one of the teachers had a double function.

The emotions and mood in the boarding school are eloquently suggested by the “message” of a former school boy from Shoumen who scratched on a table in one of the bedrooms: “I come from where no one can stand it. Ninety out of one hundred remain in the mud. But I was born a warrior, mother, and I promise you that no matter what happens, I will not surrender.”

In connection with the unexpected inspection and based on the report to the Ombudsman about violence against children from the boarding school, the Ombudsman insisted that the Acting Prosecutor General request information from the District Prosecutor’s Office in Silistra and the District Prosecutor’s Office in Sliven about the reports to them by parents and provide information what had been done until now and what progress had been made on the files lodged, and that interviews of all children be conducted in a blue room, in the presence of appropriate specialists, including a psychologist, while respecting the Methodology for Working with Children in a Blue Room and required updated social reports and multidisciplinary individual assessments for each child.

“We are extremely concerned that as of now the environment in the boarding school in the village of Varnentsi is not suitable for children who have been subjected to violence on the premises of the boarding school and they are afraid to return there,” the Ombudsman concluded.

The Ombudsman insisted that the Chair of the Local Commission for Combating Minor and Juvenile Social Ills in Sliven should intercede with the District Court in Toutrakan to terminate by way of exception the stay of the children in the boarding school in the village of Varnentsi before the end of the school year.

The Ombudsman recommended to the Minister of Education and Science to carry out an inspection on all existing procedures in the boarding school in the village of Varnentsi to check whether they did not violate the rights and interests of the children placed.

“The Ombudsman of the Republic of Bulgaria has repeatedly emphasized that children who are placed in state-run special schools for schoolchildren are factually marginalized and most of them cannot read and write. This shows that these schools should not be based on general curricula where schoolchildren take a national external assessment but should be taught under special curricula and have the opportunity for vocational training within a shortened period of time. Only this will give them the opportunity to integrate into society after leaving the boarding schools,” Ombudsman Delcheva pointed out.

She insisted on discussing coordinated action with all institutions in charge and on making multidisciplinary assessments of all schoolchildren.

“The Ombudsman’s position is that the Varnentsi special school must be closed subject to an adequate plan for its closure and guaranteed rights for all children," Velislava Delcheva declared firmly.

She insisted with the Social Assistance Agency that the cases of the four children who participated in the interviews of UNICEF Bulgaria be opened and that the coordination mechanism in cases of violence be convened as per Art. 36d of the Child Protection Act and that an action plan be drawn up to include health, social and educational services for the children’s recovery.