ATHENS // Greek authorities on Tuesday were seeking clues in global child disappearance cases resembling a young blonde girl whose discovery in a Roma camp has sparked worldwide interest.
“There are nearly a dozen disappearance cases from countries such as the US, Sweden, Poland and France that are being more closely investigated,” said Panagiotis Pardalis, a spokesman from the Smile of the Child charity that has been assigned care of the toddler.
The girl, known as Maria, was found by police last week in a Roma camp near the town of Farsala in central Greece.
Initially thought to be four years old, but later confirmed from dental checks to be five or six, she was kept by a Roma couple who were placed in pretrial detention on Monday for allegedly abducting her.
The couple, a 39-year-old man and his 40-year-old wife, deny the charge and claim that she was voluntarily handed over by her Bulgarian Roma mother who could not care for her.
Smile of the Child has said Maria is at a Athens hospital for health tests and will soon be taken to one of the organisation’s care homes.
The girl’s discovery has struck a powerful chord with parents of missing children around the world, including those of the Briton Madeleine McCann, who vanished in Portugal in May 2007.
The Smile of the Child has received more than 8,000 calls from around the world on the case since this weekend, Mr Pardalis said.
“Some are calls to give information, and we forward to the police whatever we feel can be helpful to the case. Other calls are from people who want to express sympathy.
“This case has highlighted the problem and the need to deal with it. There are (parents of missing children) who have been living in agony for years. We tend to forget these cases exist,” he said.
According to police, the Roma couple had registered 14 children in total, most of them through false documents, enabling them to claim state benefits.
Late on Monday, the Athens mayor George Kaminis sacked the head of the city’s birth registries department, where Maria had been recorded in 2009.
“The case has exposed shortcomings at all levels,” Mr Kaminis said, noting that postdated child registrations had multiplied eight-fold from 2011.
“One can speculate that a great number of these cases was carried out so people could claim benefits from as many sources as possible.”
There are more than 40 pending cases on the trading of minors and illegal adoptions in Greece, some of them implicating doctors and private clinics, according to the justice ministry.
Police were also investigating hospitals and childcare agencies for possible child trafficking, suspecting a ring operating between Bulgaria and Greece.
“The police are investigating every possible angle,” a spokeswoman at the Larissa police station said.
* Agence France-Presse