Belarusian police set up force for hunting neglectful parents

The Belarusian police are forming special units for hunting down neglectful parents. Several teams have been formed in Vitsyebsk. In Baranavichy, police use special vehicles to check on neglectful parents. The police are trying to fulfill Alyaksandr Lukashenka's order to force parents to pay the state for raising their children after their parental rights have been terminated.   Alyaksandr Lukashenka said it is necessary to establish labor camps for "uncaring parents" who refuse to compensate the government for the institutional care of their children.

"Are they humans, those who abandoned their children?" Sovetskaya Byelorussiya quotes Lukashenka as saying. "For those who refuse to work, special labor camps will be created. The rascals will be forced to work there from down till dusk, two or three shifts a day."

A senior police official in Vitsyebsk told Euroradio that a special task force will be established to deal with neglectful parents.

"A special hotline will be set up so that employers will tip police on neglectful parents failing to turn up for work. The rapid reaction force will immediately go after them," the official said. 

In Baranavichy, police are cruising in vehicles to pick up drunkards who miss work and neglect their kids. Managers cannot sack neglectful parents for failing to perform their duties properly because they may face a fine.
"At 6 a.m. we take off to visit neglectful parents at home," says Dzmitry Kazachenka, a police officer in Baranavichy. "We find out the reasons for missing work, because they might have been in hospital. If a person is drunk, we take that person to a sobering-up center. If a person is caught drunk three times, we take him to a health facility for physical examination and bring criminal charges."
But the measures are often ineffective. The housing authority in one district employed three parents prone to alcohol abuse as cleaners, only one of them performs her duties properly.

"One is already in jail and the other will soon face criminal charges. She works just five days a month and then disappears," says Tatsyana Charkasava, a personnel manager with the district authority. "A cleaner earns at least 400,000 rubels ($200) a month. But greater part of the salary is deducted by the state that takes care of their children."
Police officer Kazachenka says of 159 registered neglectful parents in Baranavichy, 39 miss work on a regular basis. He says criminal charges were brought against 17 persons last year and 35 persons were charged in 2008.

Across the country, 40 percent of neglectful parents reportedly miss work on a regular basis.

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