DUBLIN (AP) — Two blond children who were taken by Irish police from their Romanian Gypsy parents were returned Wednesday to their families after DNA tests determined that the children were rightfully theirs, an episode that raised accusations of racism
The Irish police were responding to public tipoffs fueled by media coverage of an alleged child-abduction case in Greece involving a blond-haired girl and a family of Gypsies, known as Roma.
Justice Minister Alan Shatter told lawmakers he was "pleased and relieved" that the children had been returned to their homes. He ordered the police commander, Commissioner Martin Callinan, to produce a report explaining why officers felt it necessary to take the children — a 2-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl — from their families