Resolved Ireland - Blonde girl, 7, removed from Dublin Roma family, 22 Oct 2013

[Elley Mae]

I don't know what to think. :fence:

 

[time]

I have a feeling this child is theirs.

I think it is good how this is being handled. If she is theirs then not all the media coverage and emotional uproar about it.

 

[Elley Mae]

DNA test proves girl is Roma couple's daughter

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breaki...ves-girl-is-roma-couples-daughter-611085.html

 

[Cappuccino]

I was just coming in to post the same. Not surprised really, the family were giving interviews with the press over here today and invited reporters into their home. They seemed like exactly what they presented themselves as - a normal, law abiding, family who had been unfairly suspected due to being Roma.

 

[SweetT]

What a nightmare for that child to have to go through.

 

[LadyL]

I'm a bit worried about what this could turn into on an international level - police called on parents because they have children who look 'different' than them.

More especially I'm concerned for Roma people everywhere.

 

[Cappuccino]

Yes, a few of us were saying that yesterday, that this could easily turn into a witch hunt. I hope the news that this was a false alarm will rein people in a bit and stop them jumping to conclusions.

 

[SweetT]

I know I almost and now will post "Coming soon to a neighborhood near you".

 

[Kimster]

I was afraid this might happen. What a witch hunt! grrrrr.

 

[Cappuccino]

It seems to have started with a facebook rumour, which a local took seriously enough to make a complaint to the police. People who spread rumours like that on fb need a kick up the behind.

Anyway the Irish Justice Minister has asked for a report on the police handling of the matter.

 

[~n/t~]

Glad this case was resolved.

 

[modesty blaise]

so now we have the law taking children from their bio parents because they don't look like them?? this is shameful i'm sorry,it has shades of racism and classism but i understand this is not the time or place..............i'm speaking about the situation in ireland.

 

[AnjL]

so now we have the law taking children from their bio parents because they don't look like them?? this is shameful i'm sorry,it has shades of racism and classism but i understand this is not the time or place..............i'm speaking about the situation in ireland.

I agree! Sad!

 

[killarney rose]

My sister black hair, brown eyes. Her DH dark brown hair and brown eyes. They had two blue eyed blond kids that look nothing like either one of them at all, but the kids looked alike. Funny thing is, now that my niece is 40, she looks more and more like her mother even if their coloring is different. Genetics are funny and fascinating.

 

[Perodicticus potto]

I only just realised this thread existed, so I'll move my comments over from the other thread:

It's just as I feared it would be: Authorities are using the Greek case as an excuse to presume Roma families in general to be guilty. Tell me: How many NON-Roma families have had their biological children removed from them recently, before the performance of a DNA test, on the grounds that "they have the wrong colouring, so they must be stolen"? Was there something that marked the Roma family in Ireland out for this astonishing assumption, besides the fact they were Roma?

I hope this family sues the crap out of the Gardai.

 

[Cappuccino]

The child wasn't removed because of "wrong colouring", and looking at the pictures I've seen of her, she wasn't even blonde. She was removed because they had no documentation to prove she was theirs and the hospital they said she was born in had no record of her.

The family may have grounds to sue somebody. I'm not sure its the Gardai though, who were acting within their legal powers. A libel suit against the people who sparked off the facebook rumours maybe, or possibly the hospital that doesn't seem to keep their records properly.

 

[LinasK]

My sister black hair, brown eyes. Her DH dark brown hair and brown eyes. They had two blue eyed blond kids that look nothing like either one of them at all, but the kids looked alike. Funny thing is, now that my niece is 40, she looks more and more like her mother even if their coloring is different. Genetics are funny and fascinating.

We know a family that has 5 girls- blondes, brunettes, and redheads- all the same parents.

From the little I've read on this case, I think it was being used as evidence that Maddie McCann was abducted- which I personally don't believe...

 

[Perodicticus potto]

The news story quoted in the OP says that the Gardai were alerted to the situation by a member of the public who found it suspicious that a Roma family had a blonde (their description) child. This is what led them to check documentation. So yes, this has everything to do with "the wrong colouring."

Further questions one could ask: How many non-Roma parents have the authorities come to their home and ask for documentation proving their children belong to them? And do parents who can't produce a birth certificate on demand normally have their kids removed on the spot?

 

[fruity]

There was a bit of confusion earlier because of the various terms being used.

Roma are different to Travellers (ie Irish gypsies). Many Travellers are blonde.

It seems as though the family in question here are definitely Roma, rather than Travellers but I wanted to make that distinction.

Anyway, there was another case this week in Ireland:

A blonde haired, blue-eyed schoolgirl removed from a Roma family will be reunited with her parents after DNA tests proved she is their daughter.

The seven-year-old youngster had been in State care for two nights after a member of the public raised concerns about her appearance compared to relatives in a south Dublin suburb.

Sources confirmed DNA test results tonight proved she belonged to her parents, who have maintained she was theirs since she was taken by authorities on Monday afternoon.

Earlier a two-year-old boy removed from his family home in the midlands town of Athlone overnight was returned to his parents following inquiries by gardai.

A human rights group has called for an independent inquiry amid claims the two Roma children were “abducted” from their families by authorities.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breaki...ves-girl-is-roma-couples-daughter-611085.html

 

[Cappuccino]

The news story quoted in the OP says that the Gardai were alerted to the situation by a member of the public who found it suspicious that a Roma family had a blonde (their description) child. This is what led them to check documentation. So yes, this has everything to do with "the wrong colouring."

Further questions one could ask: How many non-Roma parents have the authorities come to their home and ask for documentation proving their children belong to them? And do parents who can't produce a birth certificate on demand normally have their kids removed on the spot?

The report given to Gardai was motivated by the "wrong colouring" supposedly, but there's no difference to my eyes between her hair colour and any of her siblings, and I'm not colour blind. Whatever motivated the original complaint to them, the Gardai did not remove the child from the home because of wrong colouring. They removed her because they had a report from a member of the public about a Roma family from Eastern Europe who had a child that was possibly not theirs, this complaint was made against the backdrop of a case earlier in the week where an Eastern European girl was found wandering dazed and confused in O'Connell Street and is suspected of being a victim of a trafficking ring operating in Dublin, the family produced a birth cert that wasn't valid and a passport that only showed a baby, and the hospital had no record of her birth.

Yes, they should have left the child in the home while they did the DNA tests, and yes the rules should be tightened up so that that's the way such investigations are handled in future. But to over simplify the case as if the Irish police swooped in on this family with no cause for concern is nonsense.

Imagine if the child had been a victim of human trafficking, and the police had failed to act. There would have been all sorts of outrage and accusations of political correctness gone mad, etc. They have to check out every complaint they get, regardless of the race or background of the people involved.