Family and Social Policy Minister Josip Aladrovic on Friday announced a thorough investigation into the case of a two-year-old girl who was on Thursday brought to the Children's Hospital in Zagreb with life-threatening injuries.

The girl was brought to hospital in the eastern Croatian town of Nova Gradiska on Wednesday evening with severe brain contusions and injuries all over her body. On Thursday, she was transported to the Children’s Hospital in Zagreb.

She has undergone surgery and is currently in intensive care, in critical condition, the head of the hospital, Goran Roic, told Index.hr on Friday morning.

Both of the girl’s parents were arrested on Thursday and a criminal investigation is underway. If charged, they are looking at a sentence of one to eight years in prison for violations of the rights of the child, said the spokesman of the Brod-Posavina County police, Damir Brezic.

Minister Aladrovic spoke to reporters in the central Croatian town of Petrinja on Friday, saying an inspection team was sent to the Nova Gradiska social welfare centre and that the case would be analysed “to the tiniest detail” to see if the social welfare system had failed to act.

The other three children from the household were placed in foster care. They were examined by doctors, who did not find any injuries on them, Brezic told the RTL commercial broadcaster.

Girl’s father previously reported for domestic violence

The family was already known to the local social welfare centre, as the father (27) had previously been reported for domestic violence against the mother (24) on more than one occasion, according to Brezic.

The girl had earlier been placed in a foster family for over a year, but the centre returned her to her parents at their request in November last year.

Aladrovic said on Friday he did not understand how it was possible that the child was returned to the family of a reported abuser, adding the inspectors would establish the circumstances of the case. If anyone is found to be responsible, they will be held to account, he said.

Social welfare centre claims they noticed nothing wrong

The centre director, Branko Medunic, told N1 that social workers had been in regular contact with the family.

He confirmed that the girl had been placed in foster care before due to bad conditions in her biological family.

“At the time, the parents were not married. They got married and resolved their housing situation, conditions were improved. In November, we decided to return the child to her biological family, and the parents were monitored,” he said.

“I think a social worker had visited their home sometime last week. The mother came to us with the child a few days ago, but we didn’t notice any injuries,” Medunic added.

The doctors have found that, on top of bruises on her body, the girl also had a skin condition.

“The girl came to us in a very bad condition, neglected. She had obviously been living in unhygienic conditions,” said Tajana Milanovic, the head of the anaesthesiology and reanimation department in the Nova Gradiska hospital, adding the doctors had noticed a skin condition on her, but that they did not diagnose it in more detail because of her other, critical injuries.

Medunic claimed the social worker could not have known anything about that.

“She had no information on the skin condition, she couldn’t have seen that over (the girl’s) clothes,” he said, adding that “no one could have predicted this.”

New Social Welfare law in the works

The incident comes four years after another shocking instance of domestic abuse – when a father had thrown four of his children form a balcony on the island of Pag – provoked outrage in the country.

The man was later charged with attempted murder.

Aladrovic said he was confident much had been done since then.

“Many things have been corrected, we have provided funds to many associations which deal with this type of violence… Unfortunately, this case has made us realise that we can be more agile and active,” he said.

Aladrovic said that the ministry was “conducting talks with various associations and… amending bills to prevent abuse.”

Amendments to the Social Welfare Act are expected to be presented in June, he said, adding they would reorganise the entire system.