A group of civil society organizations called Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic and her minister in charge of social issues Darija Kisic Tepavcevic to resign over the latest scandal that hit the authorities – the state of government-controlled homes for the mentally handicapped.

A recent report by the Initiative for the Rights of Mental Invalids said that the mentally handicapped housed in state-operated homes were being held in terrible conditions, that their rights were being violated and that children with developmental handicaps were being treated inhumanely, that they were being neglected and that the behavior towards them was systemic. The report titled The Forgotten Children of Serbia included distressing images of children living in terrible conditions.

Social media users recalled a similar report in 2008 from the Kulina home for the handicapped which said that the treatment of the children and adults housed there bordered on torture.

The civil society organizations said in a press release that Brnabic and Kisic Tepavcevic should resign over the lack of respect for the law, basic norms of civilization, complete indolence, a lack of empathy, arrogant and unscrupulous disregard of facts. “This is a turning point after which this society will either become a worthwhile community or disappear completely,” it said.

Kisic Tepavcevic, the Minister for Labor, Employment, Veterans’ and Social Issues, said that she will not stop until she checks all the claims in the report and visits all the institutions where the report said handicapped children were being mistreated.