Gibraltar link to missing La Línea baby?

GIBRALTAR (Panorama) The ongoing stories of the 'stolen babies' of the Franco era, and beyond, may well have a link to Gibraltar. A 47-year-old man with family links to La Línea and Gibraltar may be one of the missing babies from the border town. The news was revealed by Rafael Carrasco, a private detective who is working with some of the families who are suspicious their babies were taken from them at birth and either sold or offered for adoption. Carrasco says the man now lives in the USA. However he contacted the detective because he has always suspected he may been adopted. His parents lived in Morocco but travelled a lot to La Línea and Gibraltar on business. His suspicions were confirmed when his parents died and he is now willing to undergo a DNA test to prove them. He feels strongly that not only was he adopted but that he could be one of the missing La Línea babies.>

The 47-year-old intends to come to Spain in the coming weeks to take a DNA test which can then be compared with that of the families who have reported recently they believe their babies or brother and sisters disappeared. The number of these families and relatives has been steadily invreasing all over the country.

A DNA test is the only way this man can determine whether or not he is one of the stolen babies and identify his biological family. The American will arrive as the National Police in La Línea continue to take DNA tests from the families that believe their babies disappeared from the municipal hospital and clinics in the town from the 1960s to the 1990s.

Among those who recently visited La Línea are Cristina and Flor Díaz Carrasco who first raised the alarm in November 2009. Since then around 50 families have come forward to voice their fears and to officially report their cases.

The Carrascos travelled from Irún in Northern Spain where they live and where their mother was born. She, like many others, found herself in La Línea in 1969 with her husband having travelled South in search of work. When the girls’ brother was born and died shortly afterwards there was no family network to support her.

Cristina and Flor Díaz gave their DNA samples as part of tests carried out by the Unidad contra la Delicuencia y el Crimen Especializado y Violento – the specialist crime squad ordered by the Algeciras prosecutor to investigate the disappearances.

It is understood that the police now have important documentation with which to go forward with the investigation. The one factor that links the majority of these cases is that there are no, or contradicting, entries at the registry of the deceased babies’ births, deaths or interments. In many cases, the same medical staff were involved.