Romanian authorities on July 4 raided several nursing homes and elderly care facilities in Bucharest and other locations in Romania over allegations of patient abuse.
Prosecutors with Romania’s anti-organized crime agency (DIICOT) and Romanian police searched dozens of homes as part of an investigation into mistreatment and exploitation of elderly and disabled people.
The victims were subjected to “inhumane” or degrading treatment, were forced to work without pay, and were not given sufficient food and adequate medical treatment in facilities for the care of elderly and disabled people, DIICOT said in a news release.
The prosecutors allege that two criminal gangs exploited vulnerable people in a systematic way for profit at the homes, which had been paid to look after their residents.
In addition to ill-treatment, the vulnerable people were kept "in a state of servitude to the members of organized criminal groups" so that the groups’ leaders and the other members could illegally collect their benefits, Romanian police said.
In addition to raids at the facilities, the police said another 21 searches took place in Bucharest and the counties of Ilfov and Ialomița at the offices of public and private institutions that should have defended the interests of vulnerable people but did not do so.
According to DIICOT and Romanian police, 26 arrest warrants were issued for suspects, whose hearings are to be held at the DIICOT headquarters.
Another 15 witnesses were summoned, and their hearings will be held at the headquarters of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations of the Romanian Police.
The actions on July 4 took place after Romanian media published reports in February that revealed some of the treatment. In one of the reports residents of the village of Voluntari near Bucharest told broadcaster Digi24 they had seen residents begging for food at the fence around one of the homes.