07.06.2014 Maria: custody adjudicated to Greek charity

The custody to the blonde, Bulgarian Rroma girl Maria, who caused headlines around the world last year, has been awarded to the Greek charity Smile of the Child. Maria had been taken from a Greek Rroma couple by the authorities, because she did not appear to be the biological child of the dark-skinned couple. The story fuelled racist ideas about Rroma as child traffickers that were deliberately fomented worldwide. As it turned out afterwards, her biological parents, a Bulgarian Rroma couple, gave Maria to the Greek Rroma, due to extreme poverty. The incident also triggered a debate on racial assessment criteria among the authorities, because Maria had been identified and removed from the family solely because of her appearance. It is biologically possible that dark-skinned parents give birth to fair-skinned children. The foster parents were deprived of custody by the Greek court. Soon they will be charged with child trafficking. According to the welfare organisation, the biological parents have not submitted an application for the return of their daughter. Representatives of the Bulgarian consulate had requested that Mary should be transferred to a Bulgarian care facility, which was rejected by Greece. The Greek charity, which now is adjudicated the right of custody to the girl, also circulated racist stereotypes: “In comments that went around the world, the head of Smile of the Child told the media that he believed Maria was “either sold at maternity, or later abducted, for other … begging, they use these children for begging, or later for prostitution, or, even worse, for selling for other purposes” (Neos Kosmos 2014). Despite the rectification of the case by the biological mother of Maria, who stated to have left her daughter out of sheer poverty in Greece, strong reservations towards Rroma as traffickers remain. This can be read in the comments section of the article from The Daily Mail, which is teeming with racist views (compare Die Welt/AFP 2014, Hall 2014, Savaricas 2014, Wareing 2014).