Greece needs help to ID girl found in Roma camp

[Toler]

Greece needs help to ID girl found in Roma camp
10/18/13

A 4-year-old blonde girl found in a Gypsy camp is in a charity's care while police send out a worldwide appeal to identify her.


ATHENS, Greece — Greek authorities launched an international appeal Friday to help identify a 4-year-old blonde girl allegedly snatched from her parents by a couple with whom she was found living in a Gypsy settlement.

Police are trying to establish why the girl was living with the couple, who are also accused of falsifying identity and family certificates — with the mother claiming to have given birth to six children within a total of less than 10 months.

'The Smile of the Child' charity released this photo of the girl, now it its care, as Greek authorities appeal for international assistance to identify her.

The child was found Wednesday near Farsala in central Greece during a nationwide crackdown on illegal activities by Roma, also known as Gypsies. Police say they also found drugs and unregistered firearms in other parts of the settlement, which is about 170 miles north of Athens.

But the blonde, pale-skinned and blue-eyed girl stood out. She bore no resemblance to the Greek couple, a 39-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman, who were arrested and charged with abducting a minor. Police said DNA testing confirmed that they weren't related.

"Her features suggest that she might be from an eastern or northern (European) country," regional police chief Panayiotis Tzavaras said.

Police have notified Interpol for assistance.

The suspects allegedly offered conflicting accounts — that the girl was found in a blanket, was handed to them by strangers or had a foreign father.

The police statement said the couple claimed to have a total 14 children, and had registered different numbers with authorities in three different parts of Greece. Officers found three minors living with them in the settlement who appear to be their children — although that hasn't yet been verified by DNA testing.

[Toler]

Sorry, accidentally posted too soon...

Should be a 

and...

http://news.msn.com/world/greece-needs-help-to-id-girl-found-in-roma-camp

[Tibrogargan]

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/21/world/europe/greece-mystery-girl/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

Greece mystery girl: Attorney for Roma couple says they adopted 'Maria'

By David Simpson, CNN
October 21, 2013 -- Updated 1803 GMT (0203 HKT)

(CNN) -- A lawyer for a Roma couple accused of abducting the girl found living with them says the pair adopted the child from her biological mother.

In a case that has generated huge interest in Greece, authorities have charged the couple with abducting the child they call "Maria." They appeared in court Monday and were remanded into custody pending a trial.

Authorities released photos of the child, possibly 4 or 5 years old, last week and sought public tips on her birth identity.

Kostas Katsavos, one of the couple's lawyers, told the Reuters news agency that they adopted Maria with the permission of her biological mother.

He conceded that the adoption was "non-legal." But he said he believes the biological mother will be located soon and will verify the couple's claims.

"They love her, and they took care as their own child," Katsavos said.

Haralambos Dimitriou, head of the local Roma community, said the couple took the girl in because her Bulgarian mother couldn't keep her. He said Maria was raised like a "normal" child.

 

[Tibrogargan]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-22/roma-couple-greece-maria-blonde-child-abduction/5036796

Roma couple remanded in custody after facing Greek court over mystery girl Maria

AM
By Europe correspondent Barbara Miller

Updated 4 hours 47 minutes ago

A Greek Roma couple has been remanded in custody on charges of child abduction after a young girl in their care was found to be unrelated to them.

Christos Salis, 39, and Eleftheria Dimopoulou, 40, told a court in the central Greek city of Larrisa that the little girl called Maria had been given to them by a Bulgarian woman who could not care for her.

Police removed the girl from the couple's custody during a raid on their camp last week after her blonde hair and pale skin aroused suspicions.

 

[Toler]

A second blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl is removed from Roma family on suspicion of child abduction… in IRELAND
10/22/13

Mystery: A blonde haired blue-eyed seven year-old girl has been removed from a Roma family in Dublin just days after a little girl named Maria, pictured, was discovered in a Greek Roma camp
 
A blonde-haired, blue-eyed seven-year-old girl has been removed from a Roma family in Dublin just days after a little girl named Maria was discovered in a Roma camp in Greece.


The Dublin youngster was taken into care after officers called to a house in Tallaght in the south of the city, yesterday afternoon.

 
The parents claimed the child was their daughter, but could not produce a satisfactory birth certificate and after two hours documentation provided could not be verified.

 
Police were told that the little girl had been born in Coombe hospital in Dublin in April 2006, but when gardai contacted the Coombe hospital staff they had no record of the child having been born on the date the parents claimed, reported the Sunday World.


The girl was taken from the couple, under powers available under Section 12 of the Child Care Act, and put her into care.

 
This morning the District Court heard an application for an emergency childcare order.

 
Police were tipped off about the girl by a member of the public who was suspicious that the young girl did not look like any her siblings.
 
The family are understood to travel back to Romania regularly.
 
Nobody has been arrested and gardai are trying to confirm the information given to them from the Roma parents.   


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2471521/A-second-blonde-haired-blue-eyed-girl-removed-Roma-family-suspicion-child-abduction-IRELAND.html#ixzz2iTHx9XsM
 Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

[Green Eyes]

These two cases make a person wonder how many more there are. Hopefully they will do a DNA on them like they did the ones in Greece. 

[Tibrogargan]

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/10/22/greek-prosecutor-orders-birth-certificate-investigation-in-mystery-girl-maria/


Is gypsy girl 'Maria' the missing Baby Lisa? FBI joins investigation as Missouri parents await answers

Published October 22, 2013
FoxNews.com

An American couple whose daughter disappeared in 2011 is asking Greek police to check whether or not she is “Maria,” a blue-eyed blond girl who was found living with alleged abductors at a gypsy camp.

The parents of Lisa Irwin, Deborah Bradley and Jeremy Irwin, of Kansas City, have contacted their local FBI office which has reached out to Greek authorities.

 

[grace-land]

http://abcnews.go.com/International/kidnapped-gypsy-girls-dna-matches-interpol-database/story?id=20650211

Kidnapped Gypsy Girl's DNA Has No Matches in Interpol Database
ATHENS, Greece, Oct. 22, 2013

DNA from a little girl found living in the squalor of a Gypsy encampment in central Greece does not match an international database of missing persons, Greek authorities told ABC News.

The setback only deepens the mystery as to the identity of the blonde-haired girl called Maria who was discovered in the camp by Greek police last week during a nationwide crackdown on Gypsies, also known as Roma.

The findings by Interpol initially suggest that the girl is not one of the hundreds of children reported missing every year in its database.

That database does not include reports of missing U.S. children and several American families whose kids have disappeared -- along with hundreds of European families with missing kids -- have had their hopes kindled by the mystery of the blonde girl.

Maria, believed to be between 5 and 6 years old following a dental examination, is currently in the care of the charity The Smile of The Child and is being held at an undisclosed Greek hospital, officials said.

"The kid is happy, plays with her dolls but doesn't seem to like the food that they give her," Costas Giannopoulos, the charity's director told ABC News.

A child psychologist and a Roma translator will soon interview the girl, following a court order, Giannopoulos said. Despite only speaking Roma, the girl has picked up a few Greek words since her discovery, he said.

Authorities hope that further genetic testing will reveal her exact age and ethnicity.  

 

[Toler]

Three Roma arrested after ANOTHER unidentified child is found 'kidnapped' in Greece
10/23/13
Gypsies arrested on Aegean island of Lesvos for suspected abduction

Comes days after couple were charged with abducting girl known as 'Maria'
 Three Roma were arrested today after suspicions were raised because they lacked documentation
 The trio allegedly tried to register the 21/2-month-old boy as their own
...


Three Greek gypsies have been arrested on suspicion of child abduction days after a couple were charged with abducting a girl known as 'Maria'.

 
The Roma were arrested today on the Aegean island of Lesvos, with police saying the trio allegedly tried to register the 21/2-month-old boy as their own.

 
Suspicions were raised because they lacked sufficient documentation.
Regional police chief Panagiotis Kordonouris said a 19-year-old woman, 21-year-old man and his 51-year-old mother were arrested at a settlement outside the island's capital, Mytilini.

 
He told Associated Press they claimed an unknown Roma woman gave them the baby in Athens.


'They told us they didn’t give her any money, and that they met by accident,' he said.


'She told her that she had five children; they said that they are unable to have their own and asked if she could give her one.'




Last week, a Roma couple in the mainland town of Farsala was charged with abducting the girl known as 'Maria' found living with them.

 
The discovery triggered an international investigation for a possible match with children declared missing as well as an investigation in Greece to check for birth certificate fraud committed in the past six years.


The couple, aged 39 and 40, told police and prosecutors they had received the blond girl from a destitute Bulgarian woman and had brought her up with their own five children.


They have been charged with abduction and document fraud, and have been jailed awaiting trial.    


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2473971/3-Roma-Gypsies-arrested-ANOTHER-child-kidnapped-Greece.html#ixzz2iaUYrn76
 Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

[Toler]

Maria 'was groomed to be a child bride': Police claim girl found in gipsy camp was set to be married off at the age of 12 by couple who adopted her
 Maria's pale features would make her a 'prize bride' among gipsies
 She would have fetched 'parents' a hefty dowry
 The little girl is likely to have been married off at 12
10/23/13

Little blonde Maria was being groomed by her gipsy captors to be a child bride, Greek police believe.

 
The distinctive blue-eyed girl was discovered in a Roma settlement during a police raid a week ago, when officers noticed she looked nothing like the couple posing as her parents.
 
DNA evidence has shown she is not related to Eleftheria Dimopoulou, 40, and her husband Hristos Salis, 39, who have been charged with child abduction and procuring false identity documents.

Police now believe that Maria, who is thought to be four or five, was being prepared for marriage at the age of 12.
 
Her pale skin, near-white hair and blue eyes would have made her a ‘prize bride’ among the gipsy community.




She would have fetched Salis and Dimopoulou a large dowry, according to police sources.

 
Officers investigating the case believe the prospect of a bridal pay-off is why Maria had not yet been sold.
 
She was treated as an ‘investment’ to be nurtured and protected until she reached the traditional Roma ‘coming of age’ - usually at the age of 12.

 

Mystery: Dental and medical tests suggest Maria is five or six years old, instead of four as previously claimed

Maria was given her own room in the brick-built house where she was discovered, in the gipsy settlement of Tabakou on the edge of Farsala, central Greece.

 
There is growing evidence she was used by Salis and Dimopoulou to beg and dance for money.
 
They also made money from child benefit payments she entitled them to.

 
Neighbours say the couple purchased Maria for as little as £850 from a Bulgarian couple when she was a baby.

 
Detectives are now looking into the possibility that she was offered cheap by a gang on the run from police. The gang, smuggling children from Bulgaria into Greece, may have intended to sell her to a wealthy Greek couple for up to £22,000.

 
They are looking at case files of three illegal adoption circles that were dismantled by police between 2009 and 2011.

 
The earliest operation is said to be of most interest. The 2009 operation led to the arrests of 11 members of a gang operating in central and northern Greece.

 
The circle featured a Bulgarian ‘middle man’ who employed a local gipsy couple to locate potential buyers.
 
The case is of particular interest because when he appeared in court on Monday Salis provided officials with the name of a Bulgarian ‘mediator’ and his mobile phone number and urged the court to trace him.
 
In a separate case, Greek police yesterday arrested three gipsies on the Greek island of Lesbos on suspicion of abducting a two-month-old baby.    


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2474417/Maria-groomed-child-bride-Roma-Gypsy-couple.html#ixzz2iaYFmfGV
 Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

[MuffyBee]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24645947
DNA tests prove Dublin Roma girl is part of family
DNA tests have proved that a seven-year-old girl taken from a Roma family in Dublin on Monday is their daughter.
October 23, 2013

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."
 


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.

[grace-land]

Video at the link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24657552

24 October 2013 Last updated at 14:08 ET
'Parents' of Greek Roma girl Maria give DNA to police

A Bulgarian couple suspected of being the biological parents of Maria, the young girl found in a Roma community in Greece, have been questioned by police.

Officials said they had taken DNA samples and were investigating whether the woman had sold the child, a crime that could result in a jail sentence.

The couple have been named by Bulgarian media as Sasha Ruseva and Atanas Rusev, from the central town of Nikolaevo.

A woman believed to be Ms Ruseva has admitted giving up a baby in Greece.

But she denied to Bulgarian TV reports that she had received payment for the girl four years ago.

She could not say for definite that Maria was hers, but said she burst into tears when she saw the girl on news reports. Maria bears a striking resemblance to some of her other children.
 

[grace-land]

Photos at the link

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2474887/Is-Marias-REAL-family-Bulgarian-mother-quizzed-police-birth-records-suggest-gave-away-baby-Greece.html

Is this Maria's REAL family? Bulgarian mother with ten children, including two albinos, is quizzed by police who suspect she gave away baby in Greece
PUBLISHED: 07:01 EST, 24 October 2013  | UPDATED: 12:21 EST, 24 October 2013

A couple believed to be the parents of the ‘blonde angel’ found in a Greek gipsy camp were arrested this morning in Bulgaria.

Bulgarians Sasha Ruseva, 35, and her husband Atana Rusev, 37, were interrogated by police officers before being released.

The couple registered the birth of a child four years ago at a Greek hospital an hour from the settlement where the blue-eyed child was found.

Pictures from the Bulgarian village show the family have several children of a similar complexion to Maria – the blonde, blue-eyed child found in the Greek settlement a week ago. Two are believed to be albino.

The Greek Roma couple who posed as Maria’s parents for four years - Hristos Salis, 39 and Eleftheria Dimopoulou, 40 - are believed to have bought the child for £850. They are currently in custody awaiting trial.
 

[Amys Sister]

Photos at the link

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2474887/Is-Marias-REAL-family-Bulgarian-mother-quizzed-police-birth-records-suggest-gave-away-baby-Greece.html

Is this Maria's REAL family? Bulgarian mother with ten children, including two albinos, is quizzed by police who suspect she gave away baby in Greece
PUBLISHED: 07:01 EST, 24 October 2013  | UPDATED: 12:21 EST, 24 October 2013

A couple believed to be the parents of the ‘blonde angel’ found in a Greek gipsy camp were arrested this morning in Bulgaria.

Bulgarians Sasha Ruseva, 35, and her husband Atana Rusev, 37, were interrogated by police officers before being released.

The couple registered the birth of a child four years ago at a Greek hospital an hour from the settlement where the blue-eyed child was found.

Pictures from the Bulgarian village show the family have several children of a similar complexion to Maria – the blonde, blue-eyed child found in the Greek settlement a week ago. Two are believed to be albino.

The Greek Roma couple who posed as Maria’s parents for four years - Hristos Salis, 39 and Eleftheria Dimopoulou, 40 - are believed to have bought the child for £850. They are currently in custody awaiting trial.
 

The pictures, the story, the video...

It's all a hot mess.  Not one of any of them look happy.

Bulgaria and Greece have work to do.  No parents should be breeding under those conditions and no child should have to live like that.

 

[grace-land]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/25/world/greece-roma-children/

DNA from Roma girl 'Maria' matches that of Bulgarian couple 
updated 5:21 PM EDT, Fri October 25, 2013

(CNN) -- DNA tests prove that a Roma couple living in Bulgaria are the biological parents of a blond, blue-eyed girl seized from another Roma couple in Greece, the Bulgarian Interior Ministry said Friday.

The DNA tests confirm that Sashka Ruseva and Atanas Rusev are the biological parents of the girl known as "Maria," according to the Interior Ministry.

Sashka Ruseva came forward Thursday to say that she is the girl's mother and that she left her in the care of a couple she had worked for in Bulgaria in 2009.

"We gave her, we gifted her, without money," she told Bulgaria's TV7 on Thursday. "I didn't take any money. I didn't have any food to give to the kid. I saw it yesterday and I've been sick. I haven't eaten since last night."

What will happen to the girl now is unclear. She is in the care of the Greek children's charity Smile of the Child, said the group's spokesman, Panagiotis Pardalis.
 

[grace-land]

Very, very sad situation. 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/25/greece-child-trafficking-maria-bulgaria-roma-dna

Maria case exposes extent of child trafficking in crisis-hit Greece
 Friday 25 October 2013 15.40 EDT   

The chaotic state of Greece and its public institutions was once again thrust into the spotlight on Friday when police announced they had arrested a childless couple in Athens on suspicion of attempting to pass off an eight-month-old Roma girl as their own.

The pair were seized as DNA tests proved that a Bulgarian couple are the biological parents of another little girl whose discovery in a Roma camp in central Greece has triggered fears of rampant child-trafficking in the crisis-plagued country.

Announcing the results, Bulgaria's interior ministry said genetic profiling proved that Sasha Ruseva, a Roma woman, was the mother of the mystery girl known only as Maria. The 38-year-old had said she gave birth to the blond, blue-eyed child while working as an olive picker in Greece but, unable to support the baby, had given her to a family living in a nearby Roma community.

Friday's arrests came days after another Roma couple were charged with child abduction on the eastern Aegean island of Lesvos when authorities discovered them with a baby boy who was not their own.

All three cases have thrown an unflattering light on the chaotic state of a nation not only in economic freefall but struggling to cope with a bureaucracy that is edging closer to collapse. After a supreme court prosecutor ordered an investigation this week into thousands of possibly fake birth certificates, officials, charity workers, lawyers and child-advocacy experts agreed that the country's dysfunctional public administration had left Greece's birth registration system wide open to abuse.

Widespread use of legal loopholes by corrupt state workers – in an EU member nation that until May had lacked a national birth registry – provided particularly fertile ground for child trafficking.
 

[MuffyBee]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/04/little-maria-put-in-bulgarian-foster-care.html
Little Maria Put In Bulgarian Foster Care
November 4, 2013

[Nut44x4]

PHOTOS
https://www.google.com/search?q=Christos+Salis,+39+and+Eleftheria+Dimopoulou&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=J_Z5UqbZG5OekQfSlYHQAQ&ved=0CD8QsAQ&biw=1280&bih=696

[Nut44x4]

http://greece.greekreporter.com/2013/10/21/roma-couple-in-custody-for-abducting-little-blond-girl-found-in-greece/