The Ombudsman for Persons with Disabilities, Anka Slonjsak, warned on Friday that the coronavirus pandemic has confined many disabled people to their homes and that it is worst for those living in care institutions.

“We will do our best to ensure them freedom of movement so that they can go out rather than live through this in confinement,” a tearful Slonjsak said in Parliament while presenting a report on the work of her office last year, adding that she sympathised with the people with disabilities in the present situation.

She said that negligible progress had been made in policies towards persons with disabilities, citing the absence of systematic arrangements for special categories such as persons with mental and intellectual disabilities, people with autism, parents with disabilities and children with developmental disabilities.

Slonjsak urged MPs to visit care institutions and associations and talk to people with disabilities “because they too are part of this society and deserve full attention and support.”

She drew attention to many problems faced by these people, such as increased risk of poverty, poor employment prospects, and lack of inter-city and inter-regional transport.

Slonjsak said that disabled people cannot have the same rights. “Each person with a disability is different, and until we ensure through legislation that they get what they need we will have problems I’ve been talking about for 12 years,” she said.