Media frenzy over Roma child stealing claims unravels as new facts come to light

By MIKE DOHERTY
News reporter

The “media frenzy” over accusations of child stealing by Roma families is beginning to unravel as new facts come to light in the Republic of Ireland and Greece amidst claims of state-sponsored child “abduction”.

Traveller campaigners have accused the Irish Government of illegal “abductions” of Roma children and following criteria similar to the eugenic theories of Nazi Germany, after a blond haired Roma girl was returned to her family when DNA tests proved that she was related to her parents. Shortly afterwards, another Irish Roma child was returned to his family in similar circumstances.

The “sensationalist” and “inaccurate” media coverage of in the UK is now being called into question by campaigners as new developments in Greece throw serious doubts on the claims that the Greek ‘Maria’, who is at the centre of the media storm, was abducted. Instead, initial results from the Greek investigation suggest that ‘Maria’ may have been unofficially adopted from a Roma woman by the Roma couple who initially claimed to be her biological parents. In Ireland Pavee Point, the Traveller rights organization that is supporting the Roma family whose child was taken by the Gardai, has called on the Minister for Children to establish an independent review of the actions of the Irish state authorities.

A spokesperson from Pavee Point said: “We believe that the welfare and safety of all children are paramount and this relates to all children.  Many Roma children are in an extremely vulnerable situation and living in poverty due to State policies and social welfare restrictions.  There is an onus on the state to protect all of these vulnerable children and we call on the State to be pro-active in their response to the needs of these children.”

  Speaking outside the court after an order was passed to the authorities to hand the Roma girl back to her family, Martin Collins, of 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." The charity is now supporting the Roma family and the family is considering their options, which may include suing the Irish Government.

Meanwhile, in Greece, new reports are coming in that suggest that the Greek child ‘Maria’ who was taken from the Roma family claiming to be her parents is in fact Roma herself. Reports in the Guardian claim that the Greek police now strongly suspect that a Bulgarian Roma woman is her biological mother. In an interview with reporters, the Bulgarian woman who is claiming to be the child’s real mother admitted that she passed the child into the care of the Roma family after giving birth in Greece and being unable to cope due to poverty. Greek authorities are awaiting the results of a DNA test to prove the woman’s claims, but initial evidence from birth registration documents appear to confirm her story.

Meanwhile, in the UK, Romani, Gypsy and Traveller campaigners hit back at both the media coverage and the actions of the Greek and Irish state authorities.

Matthew Brindley from the Traveller Movement said: "We are very concerned and think it is completely unacceptable that the police or social services act without clear and definitive information" and suggested that the authorities in both countries where heavily influenced by a Europe-wide "media frenzy” that was both “sensationalist, inaccurate and loaded with racism.” He added that the authorities were acting on criteria that were similar to "something that you would expect in Nazi Germany, which is worrying."

The Traveller Movement has also pointed out that there is previous evidence of an unhealthy link between state authorities and the media which is prone to sparking “moral panics” and “media frenzies”, particularly in the reporting of Gypsy, Traveller and Roma issues.

In its evidence to the Leveson inquiry, the Traveller Movement said it believed that the police were prone to delivering press briefings to "pander to the media's need for moral panics". It cited Operation Golf, a Metropolitan police investigation into allegations of widespread criminality among the Roma community in London. Police believed that an organised network was "responsible for trafficking into England and Wales large numbers of victims, being Romanian Roma children, where they are then used to commit crimes such as begging, theft and other offences". In its evidence, the Traveller Movement wrote: "The Met Police claimed that 1,000 Roma children had been trafficked and forced to commit street crime in the UK. As a result of this £1.5m European operation... 130 Roma were arrested in the UK.

"Of these, only 12 were charged with an offence and eight were convicted of benefit fraud and related offences. The 'trafficked' children were with their parents, of whom none were convicted of trafficking. Met Police press releases built an illusion that child trafficking was common among Roma."