Hungarian opposition parties call for parliamentary investigation into child abuse allegations
In his interview with Válasz Online, child protection expert and former head of the Pest county Regional Child Protection Service (TEGYESZ) Gábor Kuslits revealed concerning conditions in children's homes, including facilities lacking windows in common rooms. He also disclosed that when Prime Minister Viktor Orbán visited an institution with a leaking roof, an employee of the National Directorate General for Social Affairs and Child Protection (SZGYF) concealed the falling plaster with plastic pine garlands.
Kuslits was abruptly dismissed from his position as the head of the Kossuth Children's Home Centre without explanation. He suspects the order came from either State Secretary Attila Fülöp or Minister of Interior Sándor Pintér, possibly due to his leak about a controversial Russian-developed IQ test administered to children in state care.
According to Kuslits, the centralisation of child protection institutions was primarily aimed at controlling EU funds. He cited examples of wasteful spending, including an energy efficiency upgrade at the Alföldi Street institution that was completed at an inflated price, and a case where thermal insulation was unnecessarily installed twice at a facility in Komárom-Esztergom county.
The interview also addressed the case of the director of the Szőlő Street juvenile detention centre, who was charged with human trafficking and sexual exploitation after his arrest in June this year. Despite child protection workers reporting their suspicions for years, no action was taken. Kuslits revealed that as early as 2014, there were reports of girls being taken from children's homes, but despite police awareness, the investigation took more than a decade to result in arrests.
Kuslits alleged that two high-ranking politicians might have been protecting the detention centre's director, suggesting that orgies were held in the director's office and a nearby rented house.
He expects the former director will receive a maximum sentence of six years, adding that
If the rumors circulating in the industry are true, then Péter Pál Juhász has the whole government in his clutches.
The SZGYF filed a complaint against Kuslits for defamation, among other things, and for failing to "report" his observations to the internal audit bodies.
Kuslits claims that he repeatedly pointed out problems he had encountered, but his concerns were dismissed each time.
Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony has publicly expressed support for Kuslits, who also came under criticism from Minister of the Prime Minister's Office Gergely Gulyás during last week's government press briefing. Gulyás said that the fact is that Kuslits was fired, there were professional and ethical issues with him (specifically, he has a "drinking problem"), and their statements were not substantiated, so the assumption of defamation is justified.
András Jámbor, MP of the Szikra Movement and member of the Párbeszéd parliamentary group, expressed his concerns on Facebook stating, "I cannot live in this country knowing that boys and girls were delivered to two high-ranking politicians with no consequences for 15 years."
Klára Dobrev of the Democratic Coalition aims to uncover the identities of what she describes as hypocritical right-wing politicians who claim to be Christian conservatives while allegedly sexually exploiting children in state care for years.
Over the past 15 years, no parliamentary investigative committee initiated by the opposition has been successfully established, as the Fidesz majority has consistently voted down such proposals.
Cover photo (for illustration purposes only): Getty Images
