Gipsy Girl In Greece Real Parents Identified

[Gromit]

They abandoned the child in Greece several years ago. They had 9 other children and say they couldn't afford to keep her. The child has been looked after by the Greek couple since she was a baby and she regards them as her real mum and dad. The biological parents now say they want her back.

// The real parents of a mystery girl known only as Maria were finally identified on Friday night as an impoverished Bulgarian couple who abandoned her in Greece, triggering a legal row over the child’s future custody.

Sasha Ruseva, 35, and her husband Atanas, 38 were confirmed as Maria’s biological mother and father by DNA testing - 24 hours after police traced the pair to their home, a hovel in a Roma settlement on the edge of the small Bulgarian town of Nilkolaevo.

Mrs Ruseva, a mother of nine other children, admitted she had left the girl in Greece several years ago because she could not afford to keep her, but insisted she now wanted her back. //

Who gets custody?

[Gromit]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/10405002/Maria-is-child-of-Bulgarian-couple-DNA-tests-show.html

[Prudie]

This was always going to be sad. Seems she'll have one of 3 outcomes - a hovel in Greece, a hovel in Bulgaria or taken into care away from people she presumably loved(?). A choice for Solomon.

[boxtops]

Personally, I think she should stay with the "adoptive" parents, she doesn't know the others - but if the adopters paid for her, presumably they've committed a crime and may end up in jail, so then where does she go?

[Cloverjo]

I hope the girl is allowed to stay with the people she grew up with and regards as her parents. This is a terrible ordeal for her.
There is nothing wrong with giving up a child so she can have a better life, even if money is involved, but unfair to demand her back when you feel like it.

[Tilly2]

What a shame for the poor child.

[pixie373]

If she's happy and cared for, she should stay with the adoptive parents. Presumably, the biological parents have also committed a crime in abandoning her?

[boxtops]

... or selling her.

[2sp_]

There's nothing to say that the Greek couple haven't cared and loved her like she is their own.

I hope she ends up with a loving family and can move on from this horrible experience.

Now she will always know that her biological parents left/abandoned/gave her away.

Poor wee thing.

[daffy654]

I read earlier that the birth parents had gone on the run leaving behind two of their other children to fend for themselves, they are allegedly worried they will be imprisoned for child trafficking, the mother has two previous arrests for trying to sell her children.

[modeller]

I've no doubt thousands of couples will offer to adopt her. I wonder why the Greek couple bought her in the first place ?

[mikey4444]

Do we know that money changed hands ? But a judgement for Solomon, as Prudie has suggested.

[askyourgran]

What a life for those children, the birth mother said she gave birth to Maria about four years ago, and yet the tests done on her suggest she is about 6 or 7 years old. What are they doing with their hair the baby with the dyed red hair looks strange.

[Kiki-frog]

Dear God, the dyed red hair on a small child was very disturbing. If little Maria seems happy enough with her adoptive 'parents', then surely that's the best place for her. Her biological mother is not fit to care for her, and why tear her away from everything she's ever known

[ludwig]

It's a very sad story. At first we're all thinking thank god she'll be saved from the clutches of these terrible looking babysnatchers, and then you see the 'real' parents and suddenly the terrible looking babysnatchers are looking like the best option for the poor child.

[ladybirder]

Yes Ludwig, spot on.
Out of the frying pan into the fire, between the devil and the deep blue sea, spring to mind. Poor kid. But if what Daffy says is true then that should make the decision easier.