“Are you from the Police to take me to the Home for Homeless Children?” is the first question asked by Fatime when somebody approaches her at the City Square in Skopje. “I don’t want to go to the Police. I’d rather go to school, but I don’t have books or pen. Will you give me a pen? While we are at it, can I get some money to buy some bread...” She talks to us, eating the remains of a sandwich she found in a waste basket.

Fatime is five. She has five more siblings between the ages of two and tenn that earn their living begging on the streets of Skpoje. She wears a faded, oversized skirt and a blouse that looks like discarded rag. She has no shoes and wanders the streets barefooted. She can’t remember when was the last time she had a bath or when was it that her clothes were washed. She has never gone to a doctor.

“I have to beg, for otherwise we won’t have nothing to eat. I try to stay away from the police, for they would take me to the homeless children institution. I get tired running, but I sleep it over under the stairs. My father doesn’t beat me up,” says Fatime as her father Rasim approaches and hits her over the head with a plastic bottle filled with water.

Rasim is in his 40’s. He has spent over 18 years in Macedonian, Italian and Slovenian penitentiaries, mostly for petty theft. He got out of prison last year. His wife died about the same time. Rasim never had a regular job. He says that he can’t find a job because of his chronic asthma. He forces his children to beg.

“I know it’s illegal, but they have to eat something. I took them to the Home for Children Without Parental Care, but they gave them back to me. We wouldn’t be begging if the state gave us some assistance”, says Rasim.

He says the he wouldn’t sell his children for money under any circumstances, but would give them for adoption to a family that would take good care of them. There is only one condition – he should be able to see them at any time.

His kids’ “working hours” are from 10 a.m. till 10 p.m. The six of them can earn 300-400 Denars daily.

Macedonian NGOs say that the children in Macedonia are unprotected from all forms of violations of their rights: physical, psychological and sexual violence, kidnapping, forced labour and prostitution. Children are abused by their parents, neighbours, teachers...

“They can be victims of almost anything this side of the classical trafficking in children, which is rare, but also very possible, having in mind the current situation with the economy in the country. Physical violence remains the greatest problem, for many parents believe that the children are their property”, says Gordana Zmijanac from the First Children Embassy “Medjasi”. IN her opinion, both parents and teachers should pay better attention of the children. In the past, the SOS Phone-Line set up by Medjasi was mostly used by children with love related problems. Lately, the number of children who have called to report cases of violence, or even incest, is on the rise. Ten years ago, the calls reporting some sort of violence accounted for only 3,5 percent of all calls. Last year, that number was multiplied by five.

Frosina is 14. Since 2001, she lies in one of Skopje homes for neglected and abused children. Her mother died and her father is in jail, serving a sentence for sexual assault on his own daughter. He was reported in by Frosina’s relatives.

“After my mother died, he came to my bed every night and did all sorts of shameful things to me. The psychologist said that he acted that way because he believed that I am more of a wife to him, since I am older than my sisters and I did all the domestic work,” says Frosina. She tries to forget what happened to her and says that she won’t see her father ever again. He is doing his prison time in “Idrizovo” Penitentiary, but Frosina and her sisters never went to visit him.

The NGOs say that they try to act in those fields where government intervention failed. They set-up phone-lines for help and counseling, worj with kindergartens and schools, promote the Convention on the Rights of Children.

“All these efforts are just drops in the sea, having in mind that the situation with children rights in the country remains very bad,” says Zmijanac.

The Centre for Social and Legal Protection of Children has received 146 reports of violations of children rights over the past three years. About two thirds of all cases refer to violations committed by divorced parents.

“Recently, there is more public discussion of the problem of child labour. However, it all comes down to research efforts, since nobody has tried to work with the children thrown out to the streets to beg,” says Ana Panceva, Social Worker with the Centre.

The last survey on the number of children that work in the streets (begging, cleaning windshields...) was conducted by the Social Activities Bureau, three years ago. At that time, there were 1,022 children on the streets, some of them younger than six years of age.

The violations of the rights of children in Macedonia are approximately at the same level as in Serbia, Albania and Bulgaria, demonstrate the experiences of the non-governmental sector. The children in Greece, on the other hand, are far better protected. In the first eight months of this year, the Police has brought up 14 criminal charges in 22 registered cases of sexual assault on minors and children. There were seven kidnappings, mostly of young girls for marriage. The latest case was registered two days ago, against a man from Kratovo, who forced his daughter to prostitution.