Hjalteyri care home abuse victims still awaiting promised compensation despite earmarked funds in 2024 budget
Individuals who were subjected to violence as children at the Hjalteyri care home have not received promised compensations. Over four hundred million Icelandic Krona were set to be paid to them. However, the victims have not received any compensation, despite 410 million Krona being proposed by the government for the 2024 fiscal year budget.
One of the care home residents stated that other, more serious issues were presented to the Parliament by the former Prime Minister, pushing their case aside. They expressed frustration over the predicament, stating it is very strange that a specific amount has been earmarked for them, but it is not possible to pay it out.
The former Minister of Justice, Jón Gunnarsson, proposed during the 2024 budget proposal that compensation of up to 410 million Krona should be paid due to the ill-treatment at the Hjalteyri children’s home. However, a different proposal from former Prime Minister, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, is currently being considered in the Parliament, which is reportedly worse according to Steinar Immanúel Sörensson, one of the many children who lived in the home.
Steinar Immanúel Sörensson lived in the Hjalteyri home with his siblings. He stated that the Prime Minister’s Office is working on a general compensation proposal and is essentially taking over the work that the Minister of Justice had been doing for Hjalteyri.
Compensations were paid from the state treasury in 2010, for ill-treatment of children and young people at Breiðavík and Silungarpollur among other cases. Steinar says that the draft proposal from the former Prime Minister currently being discussed by the Parliament does not promise well. It is flawed and therefore stuck in committee. The compensation amount is about half of what was paid out in 2010, and it is being proposed to eliminate compensations for the children of those deceased, referring to the people who died and were housed at Hjalteyri in childhood.