Since Maria was discovered living in a Roma neighbourhood in Greece, the Roma have been the target of a piercing force of media attention. Maria, with her blonde hair and pale skin, was assumed to be the victim of child abduction. Her carers were detained and she was snatched from the only home, family and culture she had ever known. The story supposedly brought hope - Maria was referred to as the Greek Maddie and it was believed the girl must belong to a grieving white family, desperate to be reunited with their missing daughter. Indeed, the media was quick to point the finger and condemned the entire Romani community as potential child abductors. Yet, a shocking twist to the story soon emerged. Maria the blonde Angel had not been stolen. Rather, the mystery girl was in fact Roma herself. She had not been trafficked, sold or kidnapped she was the daughter of a Bulgarian Roma couple too destitute to bring her up. Given these revelations, then, why has the media continued to refer to Maria in the cases of Ben Needham and Madeleine McCann?
Essentially, we are discussing two entirely separate situations. On the one hand, we have two suspected child abductions; on the other, the failure to adhere to the process of official adoption. Unlike the McCanns, Marias parents were aware of their daughters whereabouts. There is nothing (other than speculation) to suggest that Maria was bought or sold or that she came to any harm. Yet the baby snatching Gypsy stereotype remains. Just days after Marias discovery, two blonde Roma children were seized by the Gardai in Ireland and carted off for DNA testing. Both were proven to be the biological children of their parents - victims of racist speculation and guesswork. Whats more, their ordeal marked the start of a media witchhunt against the Romani people.
The suspected abduction of Ben Needham, a 21-month-old boy who disappeared from the island of Kos in 1991, has long been linked to the Roma. Again, this connection has been built on speculation alone: there has never been any evidence to suggest that Ben was abducted by the Roma. Nevertheless, his family has this week described how the discovery of Maria - a Roma child who was informally adopted - has brought them hope. Predictably, photographs soon appeared of a fair-haired man thought to be living in a Roma community in Cyprus. The media was whipped into a frenzy had they, at long last, discovered an actual Gypsy abduction? The answer was, yet again, no. The young man in question handed himself in to authorities in Cyprus. His DNA results came back negative.
After four suspected abductions are proven false in just two weeks, just why are the media maintaining their futile accusations against the Roma? I suspect the media are bitterly disappointed by the outcome of Maria’s story – a case that was built on skin colour alone. A white Roma child deeply unsettles the notion of ‘whiteness’. Maria’s story made headlines because of the privileges that are associated with white skin. It seemed perfectly acceptable to find ‘brown’ Roma children living in an impoverished slum, but deeply shocking to discover a ‘blonde angel’ amongst the destitution that blights the lives of the Romani people. Upon learning that Maria was indeed Roma; her skin colour remained paramount to her future. She was not returned to her family - instead she remains in the care of a charity, possibly facing a future of institutions. Her Romani blood does not fit with conceptions of whiteness and now she has been thrust into a society that is so intolerant of the Romani people, she is certain to be stripped of her cultural identity.
With the media now uninterested in pursuing the story of a little Roma girl who is the victim of poverty, they have instead turned their attention to children more deserving of their time - Ben Needham and Madeleine McCann. What will become of little Maria, well likely never know; we will, however, no doubt be swamped with further hearsay and speculation about 12 million Romani people suspected of being prolific child abductors. As with all ethnicities there are good and bad people - some may be child abductors, but the majority are not. There are wicked people from all walks of life and to narrow the search for a missing child to one community holds very little benefit. Im not a parent and I do not know the pain of losing a child, yet one thing I know for certain is that the Needhams and McCanns answers wont be found in a futile Roma witchhunt.
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Filip Borev: Ben Needham and Maria - why are Roma people still seen as ‘baby snatching gypsies’?
MumsnetGuestBlogs · 31/10/2013 11:13
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Filip, a great post, and I'm looking forward to reading your blog. So much mainstream racism floating around, it seems that racism towards Roma is the last acceptable (in law and on the street) racism.
Here's to the many wonderful, committed and fiercely protective Roma mums that I've met. Mainstream society could learn so much from them 
That's it, isn't it Free- because it's "only" Roma, and because it's always been the stuff of legend, it's somehow still OK to be racist about the people.
Replace the word Roma with "black" or "Irish" and wait for the outcry.
Also very true and thought-provoking about the "blonde angel" element. Only last week on the threads about this, there were the kneejerk comments about her looks. And whoop-de, she turns out to be Roma herself and had that terrified look on her face not because she'd been abducted by Roma but because she'd been dragged away from her "adoptive" parents.
I was left open-mouthed at an (Italian) interview on TV last night- the politician accepted that it was wrong to accuse the Roma of child-stealing but said "however, they are all thieves and live off the fact that they are all thieves".
Filip- you may not have seen/heard this, but similar to the Ben Needham case, the Italians are now churning out (again) the hypothesis that 2 missing Italian children, Denise Pipitone and Angela Celentano, were also taken by Roma.
What I wonder, at a societal level, can be done to challenge this view? Sadly, very little I think.
A great blog post Filip, and I wish you well with your writing. 
MaryLou don't forget about all the Roma you interact with on a daily basis, whose ethnicity isn't obvious 
Marylou, you met two crappy people who happened to be Roma. Have you never been victim of a crime from non-Roma people. I know I have......and the behaviours I see from drunken youngsters in a Saturday night tells me you cannot generalise about any one race.
On the other hand I once drove past a gypsy camp and a young lad spat at my car.......the whole camp must therefore be awful people eh? 
Marylou, you met two crappy people who happened to be Roma. Have you never been victim of a crime from non-Roma people. I know I have......and the behaviours I see from drunken youngsters in a Saturday night tells me you cannot generalise about any one race.
On the other hand I once drove past a gypsy camp and a young lad spat at my car.......the whole camp must therefore be awful people eh?
And arf @"bullies" ....did you mean the people who had a different opinion and challenged your prejudices?
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