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Anastasia Balezdrova

Athens Mayor George Kaminis has removed the director and the head of the Civil Status Department which had issued the fake certificate found on Maria’s Roma family.

An investigation conducted in the service in the period 2008 - 2013 reports a huge increase in the number of birth certificates that had been issued long after the birth of the children. In 2011, their number was 50, in 2012, it increased to 20 and this year, the number of certificates issued so far is 400.

The data show that the births took place within the municipality of Athens, mainly in houses which are part of region 4, where the Roma neighbourhoods are located. In the words of George Kaminis, the majority of the certificates had been issued for more than one child and the column that should have contained the father’s data had been filled in with "unknown" in half of the cases.

By order of the mayor all employees who had been involved in the issuance of the specific birth certificates have been removed from office and auditors of the public administration will carry out an official investigation of the case.

The case of Maria has revealed the total lack of organization and the huge holes in the Greek public administration. Indicative of this is the fact that, by law, only the affidavits of two witnesses, whose physical presence is not required even during the procedure, can be the basis of the registration of a newborn child.

In the morning broadcast of the Greek public television channel DT, Deputy Minister of the Interior Leonidas Grigorakos said that such inspections would be carried out in a large number of municipalities where there were doubts about such illegal adoptions. "We are developing an electronic system which will connect all Civil Status Departments in the country and which will discontinue this practice," he said.

Grigorakos added that the new legal framework for the registration of all children born outside maternity wards would provide for conducting a DNA test to establish paternity.

"The problem is rooted in the law on adoption. It is very strict and deprives many families of the opportunity to adopt a child legally," stressed the Deputy Minister and announced that amendments in legislation would be introduced to facilitate the adoption procedures.

A year ago, GRReporter published a report on the illegal adoption schemes in Greece.