Cases highlight plight of vulnerable Roma children

Often, we are told that we look like our parents. We have our mother’s eyes or our father’s chin. Occasionally, we so closely resemble a brother or sister that we can be mistaken for twins. But sometimes, we look nothing like our parents at all.

Law enforcement is expected to intervene when they witness suspicious behaviour, but racial profiling occurs when state agencies use ethnicity as a factor in decision making.

In the past two days, members of the public have identified children in Roma families as being potential abductees — because they don’t look like their parents. On foot of these notifications, children and their parents have been separated. They have undergone DNA testing to prove that they are who they say they are. This is, by definition, racial profiling.