Parents, guardians abuse Roma child beggars
Roma (Gypsy) children who beg in Belgrade do not dare to go home unless they bring RSD 1,000 every day – otherwise they are subjected to beatings.
A reporter of the Belgrade daily Blic spoke to a boy who spends every day at an intersection in downtown Belgrade, begging for money from drivers who stop at the red light, together with another boy who is only four.
He says that he is 13, that he is originally from Kosovo, and that his parents left for Norway. His four-year-old friend is his neighbor.
“I used to live with a friend in Krnjača (Belgrade neighborhood), whose father abused me and made me beg. He has a total of seven children of his own and he takes them all to beg. He tortures the oldest, who’s seven, the most. Until recently he didn’t want to buy him sneakers so he was begging barefoot. I heard that he now took them to Montenegro to the seaside. The biggest profit’s there now,” said the boy.
