DNA samples taken from Athlone child, two, and parents as another family in Dublin await the results of tests
Irish police who took a second child away from a Roma family overnight have since handed him back, it emerged on Wednesday .
The latest child was removed late on Tuesday night from a family living in Athlone, Co Westmeath, in the Irish Midlands.
DNA samples were taken from the child as well as the Roma couple who say they are the child's parents.
But Irish police officers then gave the two-year-old back to the Roma family this morning. It is not clear if they did so following the results of any DNA tests.
This latest development comes as another Roma family living in west Dublin await the results of DNA tests, which will determine if a seven-year-old girl is their child or not.
The sisters of the child gardai seized from the family home in the Irish capital on Monday insisted on Wednesday that they are confident she will be handed back to them.
They said that the family were sure DNA tests would prove she is their biological relative, but added they had been "traumatised" by the ordeal. The sisters said the family would fully co-operate with the DNA tests, the results of which could be known by the end of Wednesday.
The parents, who are in their 30s, maintain their child was born in Dublin in 2006. It is understood that the family have been in Ireland for more than seven years.
They live in a quiet suburban street with neatly kept gardens and a mixture of privately owned and rented terraces and semi-detached houses. The family home is not far from the commercial centre of Tallaght, a local hospital and the LUAS tram line which runs from there into the heart of Dublin city.
The girl at the centre of the controversy is believed to be around seven and was seized from the family home on Monday afternoon. However, details of the garda operation were not disclosed until Tuesday.
She is currently in the care of Ireland's Health Service Executive under Section 12 of the Republic's Child Care Act.
Her parents told gardai that it was their child but officers who visited the house were not satisfied with the documentation the couple produced.
The child was removed from the family because her features – blonde hair and blue eyes – were different from the other children in the home.
It also emerged today that the family home of the girl taken away from a Roma family in Tallaght has been targeted for attacks in the recent past.
CCTV and perspex glass have been fitted to the front of the house with members of the family confirming that their home has been attacked. The protective glass has been bolted onto the front living room window and the front door. However, the attacks are understood to have taken place at the house before the child at the heart of the controversy was put into care.
Meanwhile, the executive director of the European Roma Rights Centre expressed concern this morning about the way the incident in west Dublin was being reported as well as the portrayal of the Roma in general since the incident in Greece when a child, known as "Maria", was seized from another family last week.
Dezideriu Gergely told RTE's Morning Ireland programme: "The concern related to these cases is that, one way or another, if these cases are not discussed from all angles possible, there's this, if I can say, trap to fall into, basically labelling the whole community for being responsible for something which needs to be looked at from an individual point of view and responsibility point of view".
The centre's concern over the portrayal of the entire Roma community followed warnings yesterday from the Pavee Point human rights group in Dublin that racist elements might exploit both cases.
Aisling Twomey, a spokesperson for the Dublin based Roma and Irish Traveller rights group said: "This specific case could be used as a means to target the Roma community when the reality is that they are one of the most marginalised communities, not just in Ireland, but worldwide. In this particular case, the welfare of the child must be foremost in everyone's mind and correct procedures will doubtless be applied to ensure this child's safety and welfare is paramount. Right now, that should be the concern."
There are around 5,000 Roma immigrants in Ireland with the majority of them living in Dublin. The European Commission has criticised the Republic for failing to integrate the Roma fully into Irish society. On the island of Ireland Roma have faced far more overt hostility north of the border. In June 2009 up to 110 Roma immigrants including young children were driven out of their homes in south Belfast following a prolonged campaign of intimidation by racists from their nearby loyalist "Village" area.
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