Greek police arrest second Roma couple within week suspected of child abduction

Greek police announced on Wednesday evening the arrest of a Roma couple on the eastern Aegean Sea island of Lesvos on suspicion of child abduction in a second such case in less than a week. The 19-year old woman, her 21-year old husband and his mother, have been charged of kidnap of a three-month old boy found in their care. According to police sources, they raised suspicions when they tried to register the child with insufficient documents after an emergency treatment at a local hospital. Eventually they claimed that the baby had been handed over to them willingly by another unidentified Roma woman in Athens, because his biological mother could not afford to take care of it. Another Roma couple who was arrested last week in central Greece for the abduction of a 4-year old girl named Maria in a case which has shocked Greece presented a similar story that the child had been entrusted to them by her poor Bulgarian mother. As the revelation of the first incident on Friday has sparked a wide investigation exceeding Greek borders to trace the girl's biological parents, Greek authorities have launched a wide probe in municipalities and Roma camps nationwide this week for forged birth certificates which they suspect could lead to child trafficking networks.