The relevant draft Government Decision establishes specific deadlines and responsibilities for the Border Police and guardianship authorities. It aims at creating a functional mechanism for early identification and prompt response with regard to children at risk who transit through Moldova, are present at border crossing points or are identified by Border Police officers directly in the border zone.
What is the responsibility of the Border Police
According to the document, if a child with signs of abuse, neglect, exploitation or possible trafficking is detected at the border, the Border Police officer is obliged to immediately notify the territorial guardianship authority and send an electronic message within 30 minutes at the latest. The child shall be provided with physical protection until the arrival of the specialists.
The guardianship authority, in turn, is obliged to carry out an initial assessment of the situation immediately, but no later than three hours after receiving the notification. If the risk is confirmed, protective measures, including emergency placement, may be applied.
The draft also stipulates that the guardianship authority must also respond outside working hours, including night hours.
Experience of other countries
The experience of other countries, in particular Romania, shows that when children at risk are identified at the border, the main difficulties are related to the need for immediate provision of basic needs such as food and clothing, as well as insufficient training of staff to manage such situations.
The need to make the mechanism permanent arose after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, when a significant flow of refugees, including children, including unaccompanied minors, passed through Moldova.
In 2022, a temporary mechanism was in place during the emergency situation, but after its abolition, the special procedure became invalid. Currently, border guards operate on the basis of internal administrative instructions not enshrined at the government level.
If approved by the government, the new rules will become mandatory for all units of the Border Police and checkpoints on the Moldovan border and will effectively enshrine the three-hour response time as the mandatory standard for child protection in the border zone.
The costs of the project will be covered from local budgets.
