Ireland returns 2 blond children to Gypsy parents after DNA tests

DUBLIN Ireland's justice minister says two children temporarily taken by police from their Gypsy parents have been returned to their families after DNA tests determined that the children were rightfully theirs.

Alan Shatter said Wednesday he had ordered the police commander to produce a report into why officers felt it necessary to take the children - a 2-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl - from their families.

In both cases, police suspected that the children might be victims of abductions because they were blond-haired and blue-eyed, unlike the rest of their immediate relatives.

Irish police were responding to public tipoffs fueled by media coverage of an alleged child-abduction case in Greece involving a blond-haired girl and a Gypsy, or Roma, family.

Human rights groups in Ireland have accused police of racism.

Martin Collins , who represents Irish Travellers and the Roma community, called the incident "outrageous" and "despicable," according to the Irish Examiner.

"We hope it is not the beginning of some sort of pattern where children of Roma parents who are not dark skinned and have brown eyes are taken away one after the other for DNA test after DNA test," Collins said.