A child collects up to 5,000 denars a day and keeps up to 30: NGO raises the alarm over organised begging in Ohrid and Struga

Ohrid and Struga are among the most critical places for child begging in the country, says Ilija Jovanović of the NGO "Gradime idnina" (We Build the Future). According to him, there are currently between 20 and 30 beggars in Ohrid and between 15 and 30 in Struga. Among them are newborns and children aged three to 15.

The children, Jovanović says, are brought in from other towns. "The biggest den is in Ohrid, where they bring them from Tetovo, Gostivar, Struga, Bitola, Resen, Prilep, Veles, Kičevo and Debar. There is an organised scheme," he claims.

An eight-hour working day

The figures the association presents sound like a report from a factory, not from the street. The children spend up to eight hours a day at intersections. One child collects between 3,000 and 5,000 denars a day and gets to keep between 10 and 30 denars. "In the end they also get a beating, and the rest, the bigger sums, end up with their bosses and organisers," Jovanović says.

The gravest of his claims concerns the girls. "There are girls who, according to what we know, are also exploited for sexual services. We have information that apartments were rented for that purpose," he says. These allegations have yet to be confirmed by the competent institutions.

The institutions have been informed

The association says it has informed the police stations in Ohrid, Struga, Kičevo and Dojran and that the Ohrid Interior Affairs Sector is already acting. According to Jovanović, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and the Interior Ministry are carrying out a larger operation across the country, town by town.

The association's project has been running for five years. According to their data, the number of children begging across the country has dropped from around 2,000 to around 700. That is progress. But 700 children on the street every day is not a number anyone should dare to call a success.

When a child is found on the street, Jovanović explains, they are first taken to a health facility, then held at a police station for six hours to establish their identity, and then juvenile inspectors and social services take over. The police file criminal complaints and warn the parents, but slow court proceedings are named as the biggest obstacle to a lasting solution.

That is exactly the crux of it. If the scheme is organised - with children brought in from all over western Macedonia, with "bosses" and rented apartments - then this is not a matter for a social worker, but for a prosecutor. A child can be taken off an intersection for a day. An organiser who isn't convicted brings another child tomorrow.

The association proposes day centres and bringing the children into education and the social protection system. But above all, the public deserves an answer to one question: how many organisers of child begging have ever ended up in front of a judge?