General Chat

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.

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

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 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

Meanwhile, Maria is missing her mum and dad.

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

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.

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.

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

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.