General Chat

It is being reported that a child aged around seven is being cared for by Irish authorities after police raided a Roma camp near Dublin following a tip off.

A blonde girl thought to be aged around seven and living with a Roma family in Ireland has been taken into care, Sky Sources have revealed. Police are understood to have swooped on the family after a tip off from a member of the public on Monday.

Concerns were raised after the member of the public saw the blonde girl being looked after by the Roma family living in the Dublin area.

It follows the taking into care of a four-year-old blonde girl called Maria and arrest of a Roma couple in Greece last Friday.

The youngster taken from the family in Dublin is now being cared for by Ireland's Health Services Executive. Sky News has been told the couple who were looking after the girl are being questioned by police in Dublin.

The life's and hopes of the families of Madeline McCann and Ben Needham must now be on a on a knife edge, and goodness knows what trauma the two children found in the Roma gipsy camps in Greece and Dublin, are going through.

I think I heard on telly yesterday that 10,000 people have contacted the police (in various countries) regarding the first little girl found.

A baby who went missing in Kansas two years ago is being linked to the young girl allegedly abducted by a Roma family in Greece.

The Kansas link is one of four promising leads being followed up by police in the US.

The parents of Lisa Irwin, who went missing in October 2011, contacted Greek authorities in the hope that 'Maria' could be their daughter.

Lisa was only 11 months old when she disappeared from Kansas City.

Her parents believe she was kidnapped and have set up a website offering a $100,000 (£62,000) reward as part of their efforts to track her down.

The American girl would be turning three in November.

However, Greek police believe Maria is five or six years old.

Lisa's family contacted Sky News by email and said "because of the physical similarities between Lisa and Maria we have contacted the authorities here, as well as overseas, and are waiting for their responses".
The family are waiting to receive an official reply.

The mystery blonde girl, known as Maria, was discovered living in a Roma camp near the Greek town of Farsala on Wednesday after a raid by police who were looking for drugs and weapons.

A Roma couple have been formally charged with abducting the girl.

Hristos Salis, 39, and Eleftheria Dimopoulou, 40, have claimed the girl's biological mother gave them the little girl as a baby because she could not look after her.

They deny charges of abduction and procuring false documents relating to the girl's birth certificate.

DNA tests have confirmed the couple are not her biological parents.

Maria, who utters just a few words in Greek and Roma dialect, is being cared for in Athens by the Greek charity Smile Of The Child and is said to be "doing well".

The charity has been inundated with more than 8,000 calls about the girl from around the world.

There seems to have been a massive response and the authorities are trying to identify who the real parents are, where they start and how they will do that I do not know.

I just cannot begin to imagine what these two children are going through, to be told for 5, 6, or 7 years, we are your mummy and daddy, then out of the blue to be taken from them by total strangers to be told the people who said they were your parents are not your real mummy and daddy, must be a very traumatic experience.

If the authorities do manage to trace their real parents, it will take years for them to adjust and settle down, if they don't trace the real parents they will probably be fostered or adopted, either way I think the ordeal they have gone through will affect them for many years to come.

you're so right - they must be traumatised - if they thought these people were their real family they must be bewildered that they've been taken from them - the fact that they were of a different appearance would not have occurred to them at such a young age - poor little mites

Meanwhile, Maria is missing her mum and dad.

I hope this is not a knee jerk reaction to the McCann case. These are children living with Roma people. I know nothing about their culture but do wonder if these children were 'handed over' or 'adopted' in some way by their present parents.
I feel for these children being taken from their families.

Vera

The Child's "parents" have not been arrested they have just been questioned , time will tell, but must be so hard to understand and heartbreaking for the little girl..... :-(

I suppose that in an " inbreeding" community, fresh bloodlines would be welcome, no matter how they are acquired....

I agree with Vera, it does seem that all fair haired children living in Roma homes are being taken away.

Maria looks very like many of the children living in our 'local fixed camp', those children are very loved by their families.

It must be heartbreaking the poor little children are like pawns in the game.

Maria will be missing the only parents she can remember. <3

i feel for the child
thats te only family she has known
her heart must be broken and her mind confused :-( :-(

There are 2 sides to every story. There's a lot we don't know about Greece:

http://www.2ndcouncilhouse.co.uk/blog/2013/10/19/children-racism-and-the-greek-state/

It may take a while to load.

Yes, the poor girl must feel she's been 'stolen' from her 'parents' and all her friends.

Many years ago it was gipsy children that used to be stolen by families who couldn't have children of their own. I was told that that was why they would have their children baptised so that they had some proof that they were their own children.

Bob, you don't read of the genetic illness in their families that you do about some other cultures where close relatives marry.

Gosh, Bob, that's a bit of a sweeping statement!

I don't think Roma 'interbreed' to the extent that they have to marry cousins. There are 'Roma' all over the world.
My friends grandmother was a Czech Roma. The Roma of the world may have originally come from one tribe - but didn't we all!!!!

I can trace one side of my family back to 1630 in the same Suffolk village - does that necessarily mean they interbred?

I've found out in the past 5 years that both me and my ex came from New Forest 'stock' - both our great grandmothers came from Forest Gipsy families, (different surnames) but I would hardly call that 'interbreeding'!.

Sorry if I am ill informed,

my impression was that they keep themselves to themselves

will have to read up about "Roma"

is it similar to Romany?
Bob

Yes it is. 'Roma' is a general (more polite) term for Gipsy.
....and there are many different tribes....
My lot were Burts, his were Haines. Lots of Burts still in Hampshire/New Forest (not that I know any - but my friend with the Czech Roma gran - strangely brought up in the New Forest - does) Not so many Haines in the Forest now :-D

Obviously some are hardier than others :-D

why is Gypsy a nonpreferred word?

has served for hundreds of years...........why the need for change?

I mean a jam butty by any other name is still a jam butty?

Bob

So now all GYpsies are unable to give birth to Blonde haired blue eyed children.

What tosh......

Until DNA proves otherwise, this is now starting to look like a witch hunt in the papers.

My dad was dark skinned with brown eyes (in fact someone once remarked he looked more Asian than European when a kid). Both his parents were fair skinned and neither had brown eyes. These type children were often called 'throw-backs'. Which indicates that at some time in earlier generations there was probably someone similar. Genetics throws up these anomalies on a regular basis.

But our gutter press is now going to state that all these blonde children could not possibly be of true gypsy blood.

Does this not stink of Hitler, eugenics and the Aryan race....... :-(

I am concerned that this "blonde child" scenario appears to be turning into a witch hunt and that the gypsy communities are now being singled out, before any child is removed from any family where the child's parentage gives cause for concern a simple DNA test should be carried out, taking children away from their family without just cause is wrong.