Girl taken into care - Another stigmatism?

It is perhaps inevitable that the Roma community — already considered by some to be social outcasts, thieves, and beggars — should now be worried they will be stigmatised as kidnappers and child traffickers.

Five days after a blonde, blue-eyed girl was found living in a Roma camp in Greece, a 7-year-old girl living with a Roma family in Dublin has been taken into the care of the HSE.

Gardaí removed the girl from her home in Tallaght. Like the child in Greece, she bore no physical resemblance to the couple who insist they are her parents. The Greek couple are suspected of fraudulently claiming welfare payments.