Zoran Pasalic, Serbia’s Ombudsman, warned on Wednesday that researches showed that some 500,000 people in the country could not satisfy their basic needs and that those under 18 years of age were closest to the poverty risk, the Beta news agency reported.

On the occasion of the UN-declared World Day of Social Justice on February 20, Pasalic said that families with three or more kept children, elderly, sick and unemployed in Serbia were often “in an especially difficult situation.”

“Despite the austerity measures, the measures of the social policy must include the development of services for children, youngsters and older, empowering the rights to social and health security, investment in employment. As a society, we should encourage solidarity and responsibility for the most endangered ones who cannot solve basic, existential problems,” Pasalic said.