Three years after Romanian police uncovered shocking cases of abuse, mistreatment, coercion and inhumane conditions in three private centers for people with disabilities in the town of Voluntari in southern Ilfov County, which the media called "horror shelters", the country is facing a new similar case on perhaps even more serious scales, this time in the northern Bihor County, BTA reported.
A huge network for the exploitation of vulnerable people was dismantled by the Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), the news site Ziare reports, indicating that "under the guise of a humanitarian association, a family laid the foundations for a business with illegal shelters for the elderly, working without permits".
"Good Samaritan" Association"
As part of the investigation, 25 addresses in Bihor County were searched yesterday, including several shelters for the elderly owned by the Viorel and Florica Paşca family, as well as offices of social protection directorates and town halls.
Fifty-five-year-old Viorel Paşca, founder of the "Good Samaritan" association, is known in the county for his activities in the field of care for homeless or severely disabled people, carried out through several private centers located in the villages of Dumbrava, Tinca and Inceşti, notes the "Adeverul" newspaper.
According to prosecutors, however, under the guise of the humanitarian organization, over 2,000 people were tortured and exploited for money. Vulnerable elderly people or patients with mental health problems were taken from hospitals and taken to homes, where they were kept in inhumane conditions, the media noted.
"The victims were kept in dependence and submission, without even being provided with minimal conditions. The people who were supposed to administer their treatment could not read or write and recognized the drugs by color", said DIICOT spokeswoman Michaela Melkonian, quoted by the website ObserverNews.
A total of 413 patients were found by prosecutors in these centers, with numerous ambulances, emergency services and fire engines arriving on the scene. A mobile hospital was also set up on site, with 48 medics called in.
The authorities have no explanation for how the shelters have operated for years without permits, ObserverNews notes, adding that for 20 years the association, led by Viorel Paşca, has been operating without any social activity license.
Immediately after the raids, the Ministry of Labor formed a crisis headquarters, and the authorities are looking for places to accommodate the hundreds of elderly and sick people, the media outlet adds.
Business worth 13 million lei
According to prosecutors, the leader of the criminal group presented himself as a benefactor, but in fact earned 13 million lei (2.48 million euros) on the backs of the sick in just a few years, ObserverNews also points out.
Although in public the Paşca family presented themselves as rescuers of homeless people, the reality in the shelters for the elderly reveals a picture of extremely cruel exploitation, commented in a material on the TV channel Shtirile ProTV.
"The members of the group exploited people in an extremely vulnerable situation, taking advantage of the image of a humanitarian association and the apparent provision of social and health services and care", says DIICOT spokesperson Mihaela Melkonian.
In addition to the millions of lei received from donations and the income of the people accommodated, the network even benefited financially from their deaths, reports the Ziare website. For each person who died in these centers, the suspected family requested and received funeral assistance from the city halls. However, the bodies were buried directly in the field, the media outlet notes.
The total amount of damage, calculated by prosecutors, amounts to 13 million lei – money that was supposed to provide food and treatment for the elderly, but was instead used to purchase dozens of homes in several villages, where hundreds of other vulnerable people were hidden, the site states.
Just two days before the police operation, Viorel Paşca published a series of messages on social networks in which he defended the association's activities, criticized the allegations of irregularities that had appeared in the public domain, and said that state institutions continue to refer dozens of needy people to his association's social centers.
"If the state is concerned or does not agree with our activities, it should simply tell us clearly and the activities in the village of Dumbrava will be terminated immediately", Paşca wrote in one of his publications, quoted by the "Adeverul" newspaper.
Over 400 graves in the field
Investigators speak of grim statistics: over 400 deaths in the last six years and the burial of the dead in a field, while millions of lei intended for the care of patients have been turned into real estate, the Ziare website reports in an article titled "Death and profit in the horror shelters of Bihor".
The publication notes that a total of 413 deaths have been registered in the social homes in question in the northern Romanian county over the past six years.
CNN's Antena 3 television, for its part, reports on an improvised cemetery on the outskirts of the village of Dumbrava, "where over 400 iron crosses can be seen, placed in rows and marking the fate of lonely people, without relatives, brought here from all over the country".
Under the guise of a humanitarian organization led by Viorel Pashka criminal group, is accused of having exploited hundreds of elderly people, people with disabilities or vulnerable patients in order to receive pensions, benefits, social assistance and donations for them, the television notes.
DIICOT investigators claim that the association was approached by social assistants or city hall employees with homeless people, the elderly or people who could not take care of themselves. The members of the group obtained disability certificates for them and thus received their benefits or pensions from the state.
The "Volunteers" case is still awaiting a resolution
As for the "horror shelters" discovered in 2023 in the town of Voluntari, Ilfov County, where according to the investigation hundreds of people, many of them disabled, were beaten, starved and forced to work, a total of 28 people, including the two owners, were sent to trial a year later, but to date no verdicts have been handed down.