Bulgarian mother of Maria has five children taken into care

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The Bulgarian mother of Maria, the blonde girl discovered in a Roma settlement in Greece has had five of her nine children taken into the care of state authorities.

Sasha Ruseva and her husband Atanas were visited by social services who moved to take the children and place them into state homes or with foster families on Tuesday. Ms Ruseva, who lived in deplorable poverty in a one-roomed shack, has been re-housed with her two youngest children in Stara Zagora, 25 miles away from the Roma ghetto.

Kosyo Kosev, the Mayor of Nikolaevo, told The Telegraph: “Social services have decided to settle Mrs Ruseva and her two youngest children in social housing while the other five under age will be re-homed for the time being either in a state institution or with foster families.”

Maria will continue to be cared for by Athens based charity The Smile of the Child until authorities decide where to place her. Bulgaria's State Agency for Child Protection (SACP) said they would take all possible measures to have Maria returned back to the country now it had been recognised that she was a Bulgarian national.

The discovery of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl living with a Roma family in Greece last week sparked an international investigation after DNA tests proved the girl was not biologically related to a couple who initially claimed to be her parents.

Ms Ruseva spoke to Bulgarian press last week and claimed she had given birth to Maria while working in Greece and was forced to leave the child in the country because she did not have enough money to take her home at seven months of age.

The head of the SACP said authorities are "ready to take full responsibility for Maria", although she is unlikely to ever re-join her biological family in the immediate future, if ever at all. Instead, she will initially be relocated to a crisis centre or placed with foster parents.

Christos Salis and Eletheria Dimopoulou, aged 39 and 40, have been arrested and charged with abduction and document fraud. Under Greek law, child abduction charges can include cases where a minor is voluntarily given away by its parents outside the legal adoption process.

Costas Katsavos, the lawyer representing the Greek couple said on Friday they planned to seek legal custody of the fair-haired girl, who they say they have raised "like their own".

“Provided what we said is borne out, that it was not an abduction, then logically they will be released from prison and they will be able to enter a proper (adoption) process. They truly and ardently want her back,” Katsavos said.

Meanwhile, Ms Ruseva, who has also said she wants the child returned into her custody, is under investigation for allegedly selling Maria in Greece.