A Roma couple accused of abducting a blonde, blue-eyed girl are due to appear in court later.
The youngster was discovered living in a Gypsy camp near the Greek town of Farsala on Wednesday after a raid by police who were looking for drugs and weapons.
A prosecutor who accompanied police on the raid thought it odd that the girl, known as Maria, did not look like her darker-skinned “parents”.
DNA tests confirmed the couple are not the girl’s biological parents, and Greek authorities have put out a worldwide appeal to help identify the four-year-old and find her real family.
As Maria is being cared for in Athens by the charity Smile Of The Child, the Roma community in Farsala is said to be anxious about the attention the case is attracting.
In a country already devastated by economic crisis, the Roma make a living in the camp selling fruit, carpets, blankets, baskets and shoes at local markets.
They are already considered by some to be social outcasts, thieves and beggars, and now they are worried they will be wrongfully stigmatised as kidnappers and child traffickers.
The president of the local Roma community, Babis Dimitriou, said he hoped there would not be a backlash following Maria’s discovery.
“There are no transactions involving children here,” he said, adding that the couple cared for the little girl “even better than for their own children”.
The Roma in Farsala insist their community is not involved in abductions or trafficking.
But police say they are aware of “dozens” of such cases involving Bulgarian Roma in Greece.
Lieutenant General Vassilis Halatsis said: “We know these cases exist, but they involve Bulgarians, not Greeks like us.”
Local resident Christos Lioupis said: “After this event, the police have been searching everyone. Isn’t this racist?”
Meanwhile, South Yorkshire Police have said there appears to be “no direct correlation” between the discovery of Maria and the disappearance of British boy Ben Needham, who was 21 months old when he went missing on the Greek island of Kos in 1991.
The force said: “The case of Ben Needham continues to be investigated by the Greek authorities and South Yorkshire Police continues to support his family.”
But Maria’s discovery has given hope to Ben’s family and to the parents of Madeleine McCann, who vanished from a holiday apartment in Portugal in 2007.
Clarence Mitchell, a spokesman for Kate and Gerry McCann, said: “They have always maintained that until there is evidence to prove otherwise, missing children can still be out there waiting to be found.”
Source Article from http://uk.news.yahoo.com/maria-mystery-no-dna-ben-needham-042119047.html
Maria Mystery: No Link With Ben Needham Case
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