{"id":1333,"date":"2014-07-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/02-07-2014-ireland-investigation-confirms-ethnic-profiling-leading-to-child-removal\/"},"modified":"2022-07-25T15:27:02","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T14:27:02","slug":"02-07-2014-ireland-investigation-confirms-ethnic-profiling-leading-to-child-removal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/fr\/02-07-2014-ireland-investigation-confirms-ethnic-profiling-leading-to-child-removal\/","title":{"rendered":"02.07.2014 Ireland: investigation confirms ethnic profiling leading to child removal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several Irish and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBritish newspapers report the results of an investigation by the Irish ombudswoman \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfor Children \u2013 Emily Logan \u2013 regarding the child removal by Irish authorities. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIn the two studied cases, children were taken away from their Irish Rroma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tparents because they were blond, but the parents are dark-haired. After DNA \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttests confirmed the biological parenthood, the children were returned to their \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tparents. The authorities took away the children last October, shortly after a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tblonde Rroma girl was removed from a Rroma camp in Greece. The case confirmed \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tracial prejudice of Rroma being child traffickers, but also proved to be \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tunfounded. The Irish prime minister, Enda Kenny, the justice minister Frances \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFitzgerald, and the Irish police commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan apologised for \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe inappropriate behaviour of the Irish authorities. Such an incident should \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnot happen again and one is striving to implement improvements in the training \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof police officers: \u201cMs Fitzgerald also \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmet with the families privately and issued a personal apology. \u201cWe regret the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpain that they went through,\u201d she said. \u201cIt happened out of a determination to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tprotect children, but that determination got skewed.\u201d The Government has \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpledged to implement a range of recommendations \u2013 such as cultural training for \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tgarda\u00ed and better information-sharing \u2013 aimed at ensuring such a mistake does \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnot happen again\u201d<\/em> (O\u2019Brien 2014). The incident has left a large uncertainty \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tamong those affected. A seven-year-old girl, fearing to be taken away from her \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tparents again, has dyed her hair black. The parents of the two-year old albino \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tboy were in a state of shock and despair for a long time. One of the two \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfamilies has taken legal action against the authorities. The minister of justice \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmeanwhile announced that it was open to a compensation of the families. In a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpersonal statement, the ombudswoman Emily Logan explains the process of her \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinvestigation. She comes to the conclusion that the actions of the Irish police \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tofficers were prejudiced and clearly guided by ethnic criteria: \u201cAfter interviewing 42 people and weighing \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tup the information, I concluded that the readiness to believe that Child A, a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttwo-year-old boy, might have been abducted exceeded the evidence available and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twas tied inextricably to the fact that his family was Roma. Whatever doubts \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tgarda\u00ed had in relation to the boy should have been decisively put to rest when \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\this father informed them the toddler had albinism\u201d <\/em>(Logan 2014). In the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcase of the seven-year-old, blond Rroma girl, a combination of misinformation \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tby the hospital, where the girl was born, the past experiences of a police \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tofficer and again ethnic profiling led to the child\u2019s removal. Logan complains \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthat the officers were asserted in their prejudices by the case of the Greek Rroma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tgirl (compare BBC News 2014, Logan 2014 II\/III, Phelan\/O\u2019Connor 2014).<\/p>\n