Premium
Imagini devastatoare sunt prezentate în presa din Marea Britanie despre România. Jurnaliștii de la Daily Mail susțin prezintă imagini dure cu orfanii din România din orfelinate de dinainte de 1989 despre care susțin că în acest moment au ajuns să populeze canalizările marilor orașe.
”Imagini cu situația lor a șocat lumea când au fost difuzate după 1989. La 25 de ani după acele evenimente acesti orfani s-au refugiat în canale subterane din întreaga țară.”, notează jurnaliștii englezi.
Iată reportajul. Vă avertizăm că urmează imagini dure:
A homeless man living in the sewers below the Romanian capital of Bucharest wakes from his slumber on a filthy mattress. Thousands of people raised in the country's notorious orphanages of the 1980s now live in underground slums.
Two emaciated men stare at the camera from inside their room which is composed of blankets laid down on top of pipes
A man climbs down into the sewers through one of the tiny manholes which connect the underground to the city above
One inhabitant, nicknamed Bruce Lee and 'King Of The Sewers', covered his head in a lacquer which addicts use to sniff to get high
A woman smokes a cigarette in the underground slum, where hundreds of people live near Bucharest central train station
Romanian orphans, pictured in 1990, line up for food in one of the country's many neglected orphanages. These images sent shockwaves across the world when they were broadcast following the collapse of the communist regime
Several cots, surrounded by iron bars hold mentally handicapped children inside one of the country's communist regime orphanages. Many of these children have now wound up living beneath the streets in sewer slums
When Ceausescu was executed, western media discovered the shocking plight of the country's orphans. Children such as these were sent to state institutions on the communist leader's orders but were left shamefully neglected and abused
A group of babies pictured in 1989, many of whom are ill or handicapped, share a cot at one of the country's orphanages
Orphans, pictured in 1989 covered in filth and dressed in rags, come forward to be fed a meagre amount of food
All grown up, but still without homes or family, these survivors continue to live among the rats and filth while battling serious drug addictions.
During his oppressive rule, Ceausescu banned contraception and abortion in an attempt to increase Romania’s working population. Crippling poverty meant people could not afford their children and many were abandoned.
As a result, the unwanted and neglected children were placed into cramped, filthy and dangerous homes that were overcrowded and already teeming full with the country's mental health patients.
But 25 years on, the problem has simply evolved, rather than disappeared. These orphans now live out an existence beneath the city streets in underground tunnels, once part of Ceausescu's grand design to centrally heat the city.
These photographs were taken by visual artist Dani Gherca, 27, who spent three years getting know the 100 or so inhabitants of a particular sewer next to Central Station in Bucharest.
He said: 'Most of them were abandoned at the hospital by their parents at birth. Theoretically the state must take care of the children until they turn 18 years old, accommodating them in orphanages.
'In practice they choose to live poor on the streets, because they prefer to have freedom instead of very strict rules to follow. The authorities are not usually involved in closing these shelters.
'This particular one was monitored and closed by the local police because the place became a selling point of synthetic drugs.'
A homeless man, pictured today, climbs out of a sewer through a tiny manhole, surrounded by trash, that opens up to the city above. Many of those currently living in these sewers were the children left neglected at birth in the city's notorious regime orphanages
The sewer slum is rife with drug addiction, and diseases including HIV are rampant. Pictured left and right are two of the slum's inhabitants
Left, a shoeless man climbs through the narrow sewer while a dog sleeps below him. Right, a drug addict prepares a needle for injection
One man, calling himself Bruce Lee and known as the 'King Of The Sewers', paints his head in aurolac, a lacquer used to paint metal which causes a high if breathed in.
He has long been considered a leader of those living in the sewer, and his permission is needed to enter. Here heroin, paints and synthetic drugs are the most commonly abused substances, while diseases such as HIV and STIs are rampant.
In the nineties, residents of the sewers were addicted to aurolac. In the 2000s, it was heroin. Now, they inject synthetic drugs known as 'spice' or 'magic'.
Gherca said: 'One night I had a walk around the Central Station and saw ‘Bruce Lee’ standing over the access hole to the sewers. Initially he intrigued me because he had very interesting clothes. We became friends and I started to visit him very frequently at the sewer.
A group of Romanian children stand in their tiny shared cage at the No.2 orphanage in Filipesti, in 1990. Many of these children now live in the slums beneath the city's streets
A group of emaciated and cold orphans share a bed in Stefan Nicolau Hospital, in Bucharest, 1990
A frightened-looking young boy peers at the camera from his bed in Vasliu Orphanage, in Romania, in 1990
Children with shaved heads wearing yellow track suits and white vests sit in a classroom of a young offenders orphanage in 1990
Two orphans, covered in filth, play together at one of the orphanages in 1990. Images such as these showing the children kept in caged cradles shocked the world when published at the fall of the communist regime
'Initially I was stupefied at the living conditions in the sewers and of the bodies of the people living down there. Almost all of them were very skinny and they all had an infection caused by the synthetic drugs.
'I tried to understand them not from my life perspective, but from their own. It’s not a better or worse life, it’s simply a different one and it’s the only one they know.'
Nicolae Ceausescu was Head of State from 1967 to 1989. His regime was ended in 1989 during the Romanian revolution which saw the violent removal of the communist government.
Ceausescu and his wife were captured trying to flee the country, and were then tried and convicted of genocide and sabotage of the Romanian economy. The pair were sentenced to death by firing squad.
A woman sits with her head hanging down as she holds a syringe full of drugs in her right hand. To her left lies a tourniquet
A man takes a dose of drugs by being injected in the neck as two other residents of the slum watch on
Pictured left and right are members of the sewers, sometimes referred to as 'sewer people', posing for photographs. Artist Dani Gherca spent three years getting to know the inhabitants of the sewers
Self proclaimed leader of the slums, Bruce Lee, has spent decades living in the area and often covers his head in aurolac, a lacquer used to paint metal which causes a high if breathed in
The slums are full of stray animals taken in by the homeless, who look after the pets while living below the city
Two residents of the underground slums hold pet birds. The sewers have running electricity and are often filled with dance music in a hellish type of nightclub
Two men climb down into the sewers, which are located near Bucharest central train station
