“Parents” accused of abducting Roma girl insist she is theirs

A Roma family in Dublin have had a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl removed from their care after suggestions that the child is not really their daughter.

The seven-year-old was taken from a house in the Tallaght region of the city on Monday and has since been placed in the care of the Health Service Executive.

Concerns were raised after a member of the public informed the police that a fair-haired child was living with a large Roma family and did not look like any of her siblings.

In a report appearing in Irish newspaper The Sunday World, family and friends of the child claim that the girl is not the only member of the family with blonde hair.

The paper reported that the family had produced a birth certificate for the child which was apparently rejected by police. It is also understood that birth details given by the parents do not match the records at Coombe Hospital where the child was said to have been born in 2006.

Police have ordered that a DNA test be carried out to confirm if the girl really belongs to the family.

Pavee Point, an NGO promoting the rights of Irish Travellers, called for a swift investigation into the case.

They announced: “Pavee Point are concerned about witch-hunts against a vulnerable community and old stereotypes of an entire community being propagated in the media coverage of this development,” a spokesperson said. “Actions by the state need to be evidence based and due process needs to be accorded to all communities living in Ireland.”

The incident comes the week after another young blonde girl was taken from a Roma camp in Greece. After DNA tests confirmed that the child did not belong to couple Christos Salis and Eleftheria Dimopoulou, the pair was charged with abduction and has been remanded in custody.

Michael Hegarty