The State Agency for Child Protection has not received signals about the specific children involved in the murder of 37-year-old Georgi Kuzev in Plovdiv. This was stated in the "Interview of the Day" on bTV Dr. Teodora Ivanova, Chairperson of the State Agency for Child Protection.
“The State Agency for Child Protection has not received any signals about the specific children in the case from Plovdiv, but this does not mean that we did not intervene after the cruel and horrific murder that shocked the entire society, of course us, took place,“ she said.
According to her, the agency has collected the necessary information and is working in close cooperation with the “Child Protection“ departments. “According to the latest information from yesterday, they are trying to talk to the parents of the children, who unfortunately are not providing the necessary cooperation. Probably, I suppose, because of the shock that they themselves experience“, said Ivanova.
When asked whether there is any evidence that children who have become violent and perpetrators of crime were themselves victims of domestic violence, she replied that there are no such signals. However, there have been signals that they are children with antisocial behavior.
According to Dr. Ivanova, this is where another system comes into play - that of law enforcement agencies. She pointed out that the current Law on Combating Antisocial Behavior of Minors dates back to 1958 and is very outdated.
„This law is so outdated, its philosophy categorically does not correspond to modern international European national standards“, said the chairman of the State Agency for Child Protection.
Ivanova welcomed the intention announced by the Minister of Interior to develop an entirely new law and a new concept for working with children who commit antisocial behaviors.
„The current law imposes a measure of public censure. We all know that this measure has long been ineffective, it does not exist“, she said.
According to her, the children involved in the tragic case in Plovdiv had various behaviors even before the murder. Among the information available to the agency is that they often did not attend school.
„This already puts them in a different situation, of children at risk, because in the sense of the law on child protection, these are children at risk“, Ivanova explained.
On the topic of dropping out of the education system, she pointed out that the Ministry of Education and Science has information about children who do not attend school. Since 2018, a mechanism has been in place in which various institutions participate.
„The State Agency for Child Protection, I would like to emphasize that it is not involved, but there are child protection departments that make their rounds before the start of each year, check the children who are due to enter first grade“, she said. According to data from the National Statistics for the 2025-2026 school year, the highest percentage of absenteeism is in the high school stage of education. 84% of children there go to school, which means that 16% of children systematically do not attend.
According to her, some of these children are related to early marriages. “They never return to school. They never enter the education system again. They can never participate in the labor market and become absolutely uncompetitive“, said Ivanova.
She also pointed out a specific worrying example: “In Bulgaria, there is a child who is pregnant at 10 years old and the first birth is to a child at 11 years old, which is shocking.“
The conversation also discussed the case of the 17-year-old girl from Stara Zagora. According to Ivanova, the information the agency has is that an attempt was made to return the girl to school.
„But it is obvious that somewhere we, the institutions, have also not done our job“, she noted.
When asked which institution could have done more, Dr. Ivanova said that she did not want to blame a specific institution, since „every system created over the years works in some way“.
„But we need to know where the loopholes are. For me, the problem is that sometimes we in the institutions, in the systems themselves, do not talk to each other, that is where the loopholes come from“, said the chairman of the State Agency for Child Protection.
According to her, the Ministry of Education and Science is committed to monitoring the return of children to school. She explained that years ago, the State Agency for Child Protection received information about every child who did not attend school, as they were defined as a child at risk.
“In the last one or two years, unfortunately, such information has not been received by us. However, when such information comes to us, we activate the entire mechanism. Social workers, home visits and the child returns to school“, said Ivanova.
Regarding the Child Protection Act, she stated that in general it is good and is based on modern philosophy and rules.
“Moreover, in order to change a law, it must first be subject to a very thorough assessment and to check how it is synchronized with other laws“, she explained.
However, Ivanova pointed out that there are specific elements that need to be changed. “Including this law, there is at least a technical error, which we will draw attention to, that this error must be eliminated“, she said.
According to her, the main emphasis in any possible changes should be on prevention. “In this law, there should be a large section that concerns prevention. And above all, working with parents, because what we find is that parents categorically do not want to file reports, they do not want the systems to be activated so that the children and themselves can be helped“, said Dr. Teodora Ivanova.
She also commented on the case in Petrohan, in which a child was sent to a hut to work for older men.
“I cannot say anything about the investigation, because I am not an investigative body and I cannot give you any information“, said Ivanova.
She emphasized the role of the State Agency for Child Protection in the case: “What I can say, however, about the Petrohan case is that thanks to the intervention of the State Agency for Child Protection, one child is alive.“
In her words, although the report was withdrawn, the agency organized a team to visit the place.
„Although the signal was withdrawn, the State Agency for Child Protection organized the team that was supposed to visit the place. The child was immediately taken away by the parents and enrolled in school“, she said.
According to her, at the moment the agency has no information about other cases in which parents send their children to similar places to deal with their problems. „If, of course, we are notified, we will conduct an inspection, but at the moment we do not“, said Ivanova.
At the end of the conversation, she also commented on the case of a 5-year-old child who was beaten a few months ago and ended up in „Pirogov“ in serious condition.
“I am very glad that the child is in stable condition as of today“, said Dr. Ivanova.
According to her, the problem in this particular situation is also related to the mother, who until recently explained that the child fell down the stairs.
“Here we have a gap in our system, because the specialists who worked with this mother in particular failed to catch this exact moment“, said the chairman of the State Agency for Child Protection.