Is this some other poor parent's Maddie? Police appeal for help identifying blonde girl, 4

[twinkles**stars]

• Unidentified girl found living in a Roma gypsy camp in central Greece
• Man, 39, and woman, 40, arrested and charged with abducting a minor
• The girl has fair hair and pale skin and bears no resemblance to them
  
• DNA testing proved she was not related to the couple
  
• Charity now caring for the girl requests global hunt to find her real parents

Who is she? Police are appealing for help identifying this four-year-old girl who was found on a gypsy camp in Greece after she was allegedly abducted

Greek authorities have requested international help to identify a four-year-old girl found living in appalling conditions in a gypsy camp with a couple whom they have arrested and charged with abducting her.

The child was found on Wednesday near Farsala in central Greece during a routine search of the camp by police looking for drugs and weapons.

The girl reportedly sparked one of the officer's curiosity as she is blonde, pale skinned and bore no resemblance to the other Roma children or the couple who claimed to be her parents.

A 39-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman have been arrested and charged with abducting a minor.

Police said they offered conflicting accounts about the girl, one claiming that she was found in a blanket, the other claiming she had been handed to them by strangers.

Police said today that DNA testing proved the girl, who is believed to be called Maria, was not related to the couple.

'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.

Detectives say they also found drugs and unregistered firearms in other parts of the settlement, which is about 280 kilometers (170 miles) north of Athens.

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.

The case bears a disturbing similarity to theories about the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann, who went missing on a family holiday in Portugal on May 3, 2007.

The girl is now in the care of the charity 'A child's smile,' which said today it has sought the assistance of European and global groups for lost or abused children in tracking her parents.

More...

• Detectives probing Madeleine McCann disappearance receive another 150 calls after fresh appeal on Du...
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She does not speak other languages than Roma but appears to understand Greek and is being communicated with by sign language.

She was said to traumatised when she arrived at her care home but has since settled and is living in a safe family environment with other children of her age.

Distress: Dirty and grimacing as her photo is taken, the little girl is now the centre of an international appeal. Authorities hope her parents can be found so the family can be reunited

Police said the child was found near Farsala in central Greece during a crackdown on illegal activities by Roma

A medical examination is ongoing.

Panayiotis Pardalis, a spokesman for the charity, said: 'It was obvious that she was not a Roma girl.

'She was afraid and under some psychological pressure when she arrived. Colleagues have been trying to communicate but are struggling.

'She seems to understand Greek but cannot speak it. She was living under bad conditions and was very dirty but is now safe.'

Charity director Costas Giannopoulos said the child was undergoing medical examinations.

'We are shocked by how easy it is for people to register children as their own,' he told private Skai TV.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2465942/Is-poor-parent-s-Maddie-Police-appeal-help-identifyi...
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[the_great_she_elephant]

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@**meep** wrote:

I'm sorry She ele

The information was in fact on another website -  Council of Europe and UNICEF.   Completely understandable that no-one would be looking for links inside links.    I apologise for assuming that you (and others) didn't bother to read my links.

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Meep, please on't feel embarrased. Intelligent discussion is all about being open to correction and accepting it gracefully e. - and as I said, you may in fact be quite right about school age Roma children only speaking their own language .

 I'll go back now  and have a read at some of those 'links within links' If  they are as interestnig as the one I quoted, I may learn a lot from them.

[**meep**]

Thanks She ele   I was feeling like a dill.

One of the links led me to this:

http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/08-10-2013/125834-europe_roma_ukraine-0/

I actually had no idea about the situation in France - deporting the Gypsies to Ukraine ???  (never thought I'd be quoting from Pravda)

[patchoo78]

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@i-need-a-martini wrote:

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@azureline** wrote:

I disagree too..... they need to know it is unacceptable to keep having 8 to 10 children just because they can........and keep them filthy, poorly clothed and fed, uneducated.............

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Who needs to know it is unnacceptable??

This child looked extremely healthy and well fed. Her clothes were clean. Her hair was clean. We don't know that she wasn't being educated. 

So her fingers were dirty (maybe cause she was playing) and she had her hair tips dyed. None of those things point to a child that isn't being taken care of. And who are we to say how many children any woman can have?

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When the "mother" who already had 8 children, and dumped her 7 month baby because she couldn't afford to look after her, then goes back and has TWO MORE KIDS then yeah I think we can start saying how many kids you can and can't have, especially if you can't take care of the ones you've got

[patchoo78]

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@***super_nova*** wrote:

The child with orange hair is albino.  Albinism is a loss of pigment, in extreme cases there is no pigment in any hair and eyes are very light even pink, but in less extreme cases the dark pigment is diluted to red. 

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I know what an albino looks like, I went to school with a boy who had albinism.. I had just not seen one with red hair. I also didn't realise that Henna could be bright red..

[the_great_she_elephant]

When the "mother" who already had 8 children, and dumped her 7 month baby because she couldn't afford to look after her, then goes back and has TWO MORE KIDS then yeah I think we can start saying how many kids you can and can't have, especially if you can't take care of the ones you've got

We can  agree on how many children a woman  should or shouldn't have under given circumstances, but to dictate how many they can or can't have (or, to be pedantic, may or may not have)  would require legislation - as in China - and what criteria would be used?

Would it apply to all women, Roma women,  women with an income or social status below a certain level?

Would a different number of children be permitted under different circumstances or for different groups of womene?

Would men be restricted in the number of children they could father?

Would there be enforced abortions and sterilisation for those who fail to comply?

[**meep**]

I have been trying to find news about Maria.  Came across this:

http://www.novinite.com/articles/154987/Tour+of+Impoverished+Bulgarian+Village+Sheds+Light+on+Maria%...

[cherry*135]

I read that it costs approx 15 Euros to get an official pass for a baby to travel between Greece and Bulgaria.
That contradicts what Maria's birth mother claims...that she couldn't afford birth registration etc to be able to take her baby from Greece

[the_great_she_elephant]

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@**meep** wrote:

I have been trying to find news about Maria.  Came across this:

http://www.novinite.com/articles/154987/Tour+of+Impoverished+Bulgarian+Village+Sheds+Light+on+Maria%...

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So sad. You can understand why they 'invent' non-existant childen in order to claim family benefits. 

Some of the stuff about the itinerant workers and the undercutting of wages reminded me of Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath.

[cherry*135]

Be better if they start educating their children then? Girls and boys. How else are they going to break that kevel of poverty.?

Spain has made good progress in encouraging the educating of Roma children .70% ( from memory) of Roma children are receiving an education now.

[**meep**]

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@am*3 wrote:
Be better if they start educating their children then? Girls and boys. How else are they going to break that kevel of poverty.?

Spain has made good progress in encouraging the educating of Roma children .70% ( from memory) of Roma children are receiving an education now.

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With a lot of hard work and co-operation things like these are possible:

http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Roma_Rights/conversations/topics/3564