Maja Raičević from the Center for Women's Rights spoke in Colors of the Morning about the situation in Montenegro when it comes to domestic violence and the impact of the coronavirus on this phenomenon.
"The conditions of home isolation favor the occurrence of domestic violence, even though isolation itself is not the cause of violence, but it occurs in those families where violence is already registered," says Raičević.
As he says, from the Center for Women's Rights, especially these days, they appeal to the competent social services and the police to take care, call and visit those families in which the occurrence of domestic violence has already been recorded.
"It is clear that the police are additionally burdened in the current situation, but there is no reason to pay less attention to the victims of domestic violence, which we can freely call an epidemic, considering how widespread it is," notes Raičević.
She adds that the competent services are responding, but that the measures to remove the abuser from the apartment for at least three days, as prescribed, are insufficient, and that this is a key measure for the physical protection of the victim.
As he reports, not only physical violence is always present, but also a large number of cases of psychological violence, economic violence by denying the basic means of living, as well as violence that follows non-compliance with hygiene measures to protect against the virus, which exposes the victim to additional fear and misery.
Raičević notes that there is a solution and that all victims of violence can contact the hotlines of competent institutions such as the police, the national SOS line, the Center for Women's Rights, the Safe Women's House, and that they can count on help being provided.
She announces that the phone number is the Center for Women's Rights 067 166 800, and there is also the number of the police, which has a special role in this situation 122
"You are not alone, call one of the numbers available on social networks and institute websites, you will get the help you need," concludes Raičević.
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