Europe’s Stolen Children – a Cautionary Tale for America
In Europe at the moment a crackdown on Roma gypsies is revealing decades of cases of stolen children. The controversial nature of the European Union (EU) is such that there is an increasing freedom of movement throughout the continent. Once a country is a part of the EU its citizens can move from one country to another without having to apply for visas. For the poorer countries, such as those in the former Soviet Block, this has meant a mass exodus. For the richer countries, such as France and England, this has meant a tidal wave of immigration that they are powerless to stop. Whilst this has brought some benefits to all countries, it has also caused international crime to escalate. The most recent problem to hit the headlines in Europe is child trafficking. This is a problem that Americans are familiar with, and the situation in Europe raises more questions about the thin line between human rights and children’s rights.
Holiday Dreams to Holiday Nightmares
On the afternoon of Thursday May 3rd 2007, three-year-old Madeleine McCann was playing tennis with her mother in the sun-drenched resort of Praia da Luz in Portugal. She was there on vacation with her younger siblings and her doctor parents, Gerry and Kate McCann. By 10 pm that evening Maddie was gone, snatched from her bed whilst her parents sat with friends outside the apartment. Despite an intensive media campaign, Maddie has never been found. Fast forward to Friday 18th of October 2013, and police in Greece undertaking a routine crackdown on Roma travelers announced that they had found an unidentified blonde four-year-old living with thirteen other children and her Roma “parents”. The girl was frightened, dirty, and showed signs of having previously had her hair dyed dark. Nobody knows who she is or where she came from, only that DNA tests show that she is not related to the gypsies who were claiming to be her parents. A resurgence of interest in these cases has led to speculation that hundreds of children may have been kidnapped to order and forced into slavery.
A Question of Human Rights and Human Reason
The main problem faced by the Europeans is one of human rights. The Roma are an ethnic minority with their own distinct cultures and traditions. As such, they have faced waves of discrimination and hatred throughout history. During the Second World War the Nazis attempted to wipe them out entirely. In the present day, even in countries such as Sweden that are supposedly neutral in terms of immigration, the Roma have been deported en masse, even though doing so is contrary to EU rules. The fact that nobody wants them seems only to have strengthened the Roma’s resolve to continue to live outside the law. The rights issue is highly contentious, and both sides have a strong argument. The problem, however, is that children’s rights get swept under the carpet during legal wranglings about which adult has the right to do what.
The United Nations play a significant role in protecting the rights of children around the world. However, simply having a declaration of human rights does not stop the abuse of children, as the situation in Europe has clearly shown. In the US we are becoming all too used to seeing children made the victims of atrocities such as shootings, neglect, and kidnappings on home soil. However, the debate about child safety should be looked at from a broader international legal perspective. Is the US as vulnerable to the wording of the UN declarations as Europe? It would be better to find out sooner rather than later.
(This article was written by Claire Dawson)
