Filming reveals Czech children still caged

The Czech Republic banned the use of cage-like beds in children's care homes a year ago, under international pressure. But as Clive Myrie reports for the Ten O'Clock News, secret filming shows the use of the beds goes on.

We clustered around the tiny television monitor in our hotel room in the centre of Prague.

Child in a cage bed in the Czech Republic
The beds are a mattress with metal bars forming a cage around it

Along with BBC producer Annie Allison, and cameraman John Landy, I watched with fascination and horror as the video played.

A BBC undercover team had secretly filmed life inside a social care home in the Czech Republic.

The pictures were surprisingly clear. Youngsters with severe mental and physical disabilities were being housed in so-called "cage beds".

Finally, we had evidence that a member of the European Union was not fulfilling its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.

EU membership has been kind to the Czech Republic. It is the most stable and prosperous of the post-Communist states.

But it is also a deeply conservative land with firm traditions.

Hidden away

Travel beyond the capital Prague into the countryside and this is where you will find more than 200 social care homes housing around 10,000 people with mental and physical disabilities.

For decades those who were not considered perfect in body and mind by the state were hidden away.

Some of those in care homes were also kept in special beds surrounded by high metal bars or thick netting. These cage beds horrified the international community, and at the beginning of 2007 the Czechs banned them.

But late last year we got word that some social care homes might be flouting the law.

Our contact had worked as a carer for more than 20 years and pointed us in the right direction.

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