Saeed Al-Suraihi Okaz The local press recently published a report about the complaints of a Madinah social care home's residents who said they were being tortured and maltreated. The Ministry of Social Affairs should have moved immediately after the publication of the report to correct the situation in the home and punish those responsible. Instead it opted to remain silent. The Human Rights Commission (HRC) formed a team to visit the home. The team discovered many wrongdoings that could be considered blatant crimes. Instead of being safe and secure, the residents found themselves to be the victims of the very home that is supposed to look after them. The citizens are probably not that surprised by the ministry's passiveness and slackness in dealing with the problems at the care home in Madinah because they have seen its inability in dealing with similar situations all over the Kingdom. If the ministry had done its job properly, the residents would not have dared to complain to the media. They appealed to the public and the concerned officials to rescue them from the torture they were suffering at the hands of the ministry's employees. It is obvious that the employees had no fear, either of God or the ministry, otherwise they would not have been so cruel to the poor residents. The HRC's team had discovered at least six serious violations being committed at the home, including residents being beaten with electric wires, slapped, kicked and forced to go hungry. The ministry is used to moving only after it is too late but this does not absolve it of the responsibility to rectify the situation and punish its erring employees. The repeated incidents of maltreatment in care homes are enough proof that the ministry has failed to carry out its duties. The ministry should move quickly to set the record straight in all its social care homes before more official investigations into how residents are treated shock us with their painful results.
