Public ombudswoman for persons with disabilities Ana Slonjsak on Friday presented a report on her office's work to the parliament, and MPs, who commended her work, warned that there were nearly half a million people with disabilities in Croatia and that they could not exercise many of their rights.

During the debate, two Opposition deputies — Anka Mrak Taritas and Sandra Bencic — said that a huge group of people with disabilities were denied their rights and were treated as “third-class” citizens.

They said that many of the disabled were deprived of the possibility to live in a community.

Zvane Brumnic of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) agreed that there are many hindrances that make it impossible for the disabled to exercise their rights.

There are 211,000 disabled persons of working age in Croatia, however, a mere 11,610 of them are on the labour market, Slosnjak said.

She went on to say that the educational system was not adapted to meet the needs of children and undergraduates with disabilities.

They are also at a higher risk of poverty, she added.

The Opposition called for the adoption of legislation on social care and personal assistants.

The Social Policy Ministry’s state secretary, Marija Pletikosa, said that the draft law on social care had already been forwarded to the parliament for consideration

Independent lawmaker Marijana Petir pointed out that that there were 56,000 war veterans with disabilities.

She said that an analysis shows that in 2018 a total of 3,899 war veterans died, and two thirds of them were under the age of 70.