Blonde girl, 7, removed from Dublin Roma family

[Loki]

Blonde girl, 7, removed from Dublin Roma family (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24626422)

Police in the Republic of Ireland have removed a seven-year-old blonde girl from a Roma family in Dublin.

The girl was taken into care after officers called to a house in Tallaght on Monday afternoon.

They saw a number of children, including the seven-year-old girl who has blonde hair and blue eyes.

The parents told police the child was their daughter, but officers were not satisfied with the explanation or with the documents that were produced.

The Sunday World reported that a birth certificate was believed to have eventually been produced but officers were not satisfied with it.

The paper reported that although the couple claimed the child was born in the Coombe hospital in Dublin in 2006, the hospital had no record of the child being born on the date quoted by the parents.

The child was removed from the family under powers in the Child Care Act.

It is understood the child is now in the care of the Health Service Executive.

It is believed it will make an application to the courts for a temporary care order.

Police had been told by a member of the public that a six or seven-year-old girl was living with a large Roma family and looked nothing like any of her siblings.

Last week a young blonde girl was found during a raid on a Roma camp in central Greece.

Appeal

A Roma couple have been formally charged with abducting the girl, named Maria, and have been placed in detention pending a trial.

DNA tests showed that she was not related to the couple, who insist they were given her legitimately.

Maria is being cared for by a charity in Athens, which has received more than 8,000 calls after an appeal.

The case has brought a response from two families in the UK with long-missing children.

Ben Needham from Sheffield disappeared aged 21 months while on a family holiday on the Greek island of Kos in 1991. His sister said the discovery of the blonde-haired girl in central Greece gave them "great hope".

A spokesman for Kate and Gerry McCann, whose three-year-old daughter Madeleine went missing in Portugal in 2007, said the case also gave them hope that she would one day be found alive.

[Loki]

Oops ... this is embarrassing. Turns out the child was actually genetically a Roma child:

DNA tests prove Dublin Roma girl is part of family (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24645947)

DNA tests have proved that a seven-year-old girl taken from a Roma family in Dublin on Monday is their daughter.

The family said they were "delighted" that their daughter had come home.

They also said they would be taking legal advice, and that serious questions have arisen over the procedures used in the case.

The blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl had been removed by police from her Tallaght home and taken into temporary care.

The family have supported calls from human rights group Pavee Point for an independent inquiry into the investigation.

In a statement issued through their solicitor the family said: "Her removal has been a cause of huge upset to her parents, her brothers and sisters, and the young girl herself.

"They now intend to concentrate on looking after their family and, in particular, in trying to reassure their daughter that she will be left in their care.
Distraught

"Our clients also wish to say they do not believe that what has happened to their family over the few days should ever have happened.

"They do not accept that this was any proper or sufficient basis to take their daughter away from them.

"They believe that there are very serious questions arising about the procedures used in this case but are going to wait for things to settle down and consider their position and that of their daughter in light of recent events and will be taking legal advice in respect of this."

A 21-year-old sister of the child, who can not be identified for legal reasons, said their mother had not eaten for three days because she was so distraught.

"Everyone was very sad," she said. The sister added she hoped no other family would have to go through a similar ordeal.

Report

Meanwhile, a two-year-old boy from a Roma family who was briefly taken into care in County Westmeath has been reunited with his parents.

The boy was taken from his family on Tuesday in Athlone and returned a day later.

Alan Shatter, the Irish minister for justice, said he will be asking the Garda (Police) Commissioner for a report on the two cases.

A Garda statement said: "Protecting vulnerable children is of paramount importance to An Garda Síochána and we continue to work in partnership with the HSE (Health Service Executive) and other agencies to ensure children's safety.

"An Garda Síochána want to assure the community that we take extremely serious all reports received from members of the public concerning child welfare issues."

The Irish police action took place against the background of international interest in the case of a blonde-haired child being taken from a Roma family in Greece last week.

Greek police are investigating whether the girl had been abducted.

[Shah-Jehan]

The judge was melonhead, I'm sure...

[armenianbodyhair]

Gotta love the good old fashioned bigotry...

[Kiyant]

The judge was melonhead, I'm sure...

In Germany someone asked my cousin if he was adopted because he is a blonde turk :picard1:

[Prisoner Of Ice]

Gypsy infidelity strikes again :D

[Útrám]

What happens if the police take away an albino child from a black couple? Is the child sent to Finland?

[Carlito's Way]

reminds me of what happened in Mexico where some poor blonde mexican little girl was thought of being kidnapped cause her parents were brown mexicans :laugh:
http://www.latinorebels.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Ks7WE.jpeg

[Prisoner Of Ice]

I'd rather they at least check it out than just ignore it, but they should be able to do this stuff quicker. They need to have disposable paternity kits for cases like this that give answer in 15 minutes.

[Colonel Frank Grimes]

Gotta love the good old fashioned bigotry...

You know many blonde haired blue eyed Gypsies? I've seen only one and I'm thinking the mother was getting some on the side. It would be negligence for the police to ignore the difference in features between the parents and this child and not look into it.

[armenianbodyhair]

You know many blonde haired blue eyed Gypsies? I've seen only one and I'm thinking the mother was getting some on the side. It would be negligence for the police to ignore the difference in features between the parents and this child and not look into it.
I have a cousin who was born with light eyes and blonde hair and both her parents were dark and now she looks dark like them. Genes work in mysterious ways, there is a reason we don't classify 7 year olds.

[larali]

A spokesman for Kate and Gerry McCann, whose three-year-old daughter Madeleine went missing in Portugal in 2007, said the case also gave them hope that she would one day be found alive.

Baloney, I have followed that case from day one and I believe Madeleine was a victim of child trafficking, but no way she will be found with gypsies-- she's dead now, probably.

[Vukodav]

I have a cousin who was born with light eyes and blonde hair and both her parents were dark and now she looks dark like them. Genes work in mysterious ways, there is a reason we don't classify 7 year olds.
It is common thing for Europeans to be blonde in childhood and later get darker. but not for gypsies.

[Colonel Frank Grimes]

I have a cousin who was born with light eyes and blonde hair and both her parents were dark and now she looks dark like them. Genes work in mysterious ways, there is a reason we don't classify 7 year olds.

When talking about Gypsies we're talking about people who look distinctive. The Irish cops saw a girl with a combination of features that would very rarely show up among Gypsies.

Also, they're Gypsies. They tend to lie and steal like crazy. Call it bigotry if you like but anyone who has experience with Gypsies don't trust them.

[Empecinado]

Usually light Gypsies still look like Gypsies:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF25E4LYr8Y

[Sblast]

Embarrassing U-turn comes after DNA tests prove that girl put into care, 7, is biological daughter of Dublin couple.

Ireland's police force and health service have been forced into an embarrassing U-turn over the seizure of a young Roma girl from her family because she had blue eyes and blonde hair.

The Irish justice minister, Alan Shatter, has asked the head of the Irish police force, the Garda Síochána, to report on this case and another one involving a two-year-old Roma boy also taken from his family by the authorities.

The seven-year-old was handed back to her Roma parents this evening after DNA results showed that she was in fact their child.

After a family court hearing in central Dublin, the family issued a statement stating that there was never "any proper or sufficient basis to take their daughter away from them".

The two-year-old boy was removed on Tuesday night from a family living in Athlone, Co Westmeath, in the Irish midlands. DNA samples were taken from the child as well as the Roma couple who are the child's parents.

Police officers then returned the boy to the family this morning. It is not clear if they did so following the results of any DNA tests.

The girl had been held in care by the health service after the police raided the family's home in Tallaght, Dublin, on Monday afternoon. Garda officers refused to believe the child's parents, who protested that she was their daughter. But the parents and their other children always insisted that the child was their daughter and said tonight that had been verified.

In a reference to the case in Greece of the girl known as Maria, where it has been established that a blonde child was not the daughter of a Roma couple who were looking after her, the Dublin family criticised those who tried to falsely link the two cases. The family said tonight, via their solicitor Waheed Mudah, that their ordeal had "nothing to do" with events elsewhere.

As the family prepared to welcome their daughter back home, a veteran human rights campaigner for Irish Travellers and the Roma community demanded an inquiry into how the authorities had treated the two families.

Martin Collins, of the lobby group Pavee Point, described the way that the children were taken into care as "abductions".

Collins said: "We are extremely concerned and worried about these developments. We hope it is not the beginning of some sort of pattern where children of Roma parents who are not dark-skinned and have brown eyes are taken away one after the other for DNA test after DNA test."

Shatter said the police had acted in good faith in removing the children from their families. "The law provides clear powers for An Garda Siochana where it is believed that a child may be in danger. The Health Service Executive and the courts are involved in making the appropriate decisions.

"Urgent procedures are available to ensure that the safety of a child can be assured while necessary inquiries are being made. While such procedures can be understandably distressing for parents, the reality is that not invoking the procedures can involve taking a risk with the safety of a child if you don't act on the basis of the information that is available at the time."

From early on Wednesday morning, the sisters of the girl Gardai seized from the family in Dublin insisted that they were always confident that she would be handed back to them.

They said that the family were all traumatised by the ordeal, including the child at the centre of the controversy.

Their parents, who are in their 30s, had maintained it was their child, born in Dublin in 2006. It is understood the family have been in Ireland for more than seven years.

They live in a quiet suburban street with neatly kept gardens and a mixture of privately owned and rented terraces and semi-detached houses.

The sisters said their house has been the target of repeated attacks from local youths in the recent past. In response, the family had installed a CCTV camera trained on the front garden and pathway up to the door as well as fitting perspex glass bolted on to the living room window to protect them from missiles.

It also emerged yesterday that the controversy in Tallaght was sparked by an anonymous posting on Facebook. An unnamed female member of the public tipped off television channel TV3 about the presence of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed child at the house on Monday morning.

A researcher at the station passed on the Facebook message to an investigative TV3 reporter, who then contacted the gardai at the station in Tallaght.

Meanwhile, the Roma father of a two year-old-boy has expressed relief after his son was returned to his family.

The father of two said his wife, originally from Bucharest in Romania, had been extremely distressed and unable to sleep after their son was kept overnight. He said that when the gardai arrived at the house, he challenged them to take a sample of his own blood to prove the child belonged to the family.

He said the Health Services Executive informed him that he could pick up the child at a HSE centre around midday on Wednesday.

Source (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/24/blonde-girl-roma-parents-returned-dna)

[Elsa]

Threads merged.

[Manifest Destiny]

This sort of anti-gypsy bigotry is unacceptable. They should all leave Ireland in protest and never come back. :laugh:

[Farah]

Oh wow, this must have been very mentally difficult on the parents, to be suspected against your own child. I understand the tragedy of the Maria case in Greece has caused paranoia especially since child trafficking is very real and widespread, but it also treads on dangerous waters...also, what about children who may have been trafficked but simply don't stand out because they have darker features? It really raises alot of difficult ethical questions.

[rashka]

Always better to be safe than sorry in these cases. People should be happy that there are police to do such things for the community. No harm was done really now.

Since Roma were notorious for stealing children in Europe since the middle ages, at least - the Turks brought them over as slaves - you will find some having hazel or light eyes.