{"id":1428,"date":"2014-06-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-06-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/07-06-2014-maria-custody-adjudicated-to-greek-charity\/"},"modified":"2022-08-21T07:33:23","modified_gmt":"2022-08-21T06:33:23","slug":"07-06-2014-maria-custody-adjudicated-to-greek-charity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/fr\/07-06-2014-maria-custody-adjudicated-to-greek-charity\/","title":{"rendered":"07.06.2014 Maria: custody adjudicated to Greek charity"},"content":{"rendered":"

The custody to the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tblonde, Bulgarian Rroma girl Maria, who caused headlines around the world last \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tyear, has been awarded to the Greek charity Smile of the Child. Maria had been \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttaken from a Greek Rroma couple by the authorities, because she did not appear to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbe the biological child of the dark-skinned couple. The story fuelled racist \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tideas about Rroma as child traffickers that were deliberately fomented \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tworldwide. As it turned out afterwards, her biological parents, a Bulgarian \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRroma couple, gave Maria to the Greek Rroma, due to extreme poverty. The incident \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\talso triggered a debate on racial assessment criteria among the authorities, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbecause Maria had been identified and removed from the family solely because of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ther appearance. It is biologically possible that dark-skinned parents give \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbirth to fair-skinned children. The foster parents were deprived of custody by \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe Greek court. Soon they will be charged with child trafficking. According to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe welfare organisation, the biological parents have not submitted an \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tapplication for the return of their daughter. Representatives of the Bulgarian \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsulate had requested that Mary should be transferred to a Bulgarian care facility, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twhich was rejected by Greece. The Greek charity, which now is adjudicated the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tright of custody to the girl, also circulated racist stereotypes: \u201cIn comments that went around the world, the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thead of Smile of the Child told the media that he believed Maria was \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t“either sold at maternity, or later abducted, for other \u2026 begging, they \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tuse these children for begging, or later for prostitution, or, even worse, for \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tselling for other purposes\u201d<\/em> (Neos \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKosmos 2014). Despite \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe rectification of the case by the biological mother of Maria, who stated to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thave left her daughter out of sheer poverty in Greece, strong reservations \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttowards Rroma as traffickers remain. This can be read in the comments section \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof the article from The Daily Mail<\/em>, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twhich is teeming with racist views (compare Die Welt\/AFP 2014, Hall 2014, Savaricas 2014, Wareing 2014).<\/p>\n