ever since romania entered the european union, this problem started to get sharper and sharper and now it is a very well establish cycle. the theft made by gypsy children is not as simple as it may look.
sometimes these children are stolen from their own parents in romania, in order to steal in countries like spain, italy or france. they are kept in horrible conditions by their "controllers" who threaten them with things like "if you don't bring me 400€ today i will break both of your arms". later the children give all the money to the controller who then sends it to the big, main controller in romania. normaly the heads of these nets are rich as one can be.
of course it is not as simple. the problem is that, because they are children, they are taught and forced to steal by their own parents. they bring home a lot of money each day, and if they are caught, nothing happens: they are minors.
quite an issue here. very nice documentary.