After a year, the Danish government has still not responded to compensation claims

Today marks one year since four adoptees from Greenland sent a compensation claim to the Danish government.

A year ago, a compensation claim of one million kroner landed at the Prime Minister’s Office. The compensation claim came from four people who were adopted from Greenland to Denmark in the 1950s and decades later.

But a year later, the Danish government has still not responded to the compensation claim. The only development in the case is that it has been transferred to the Ministry of Social Affairs. This is according to their lawyer Mads Pramming from Pramming Advokater.

And that is deeply reprehensible, according to Margrete Johansen and Marius Kristensen, who are two of the four people behind the compensation claim.

– It fits in all too well with the fact that the Danish authorities do not take Greenland seriously enough. I am angry that the matter is apparently being shelved and that it continues to be pushed aside, says Marius Kristensen.

In total, the four people are demanding compensation of 250,000 kroner each from the state for violating their human rights when they were removed from their biological parents.

The greatest crime

Marius Kristensen was born in 1955 in the village of Aalatsivik, but was adopted when he was three years old. His Danish adoptive mother, who was a nurse in Greenland, took him to Denmark when he was 10 years old.

At the age of 30, Marius Kristensen managed to reunite with his original mother and family. A reunion that also revealed a completely different version of the adoption story.

The mother had not understood the Danish adoption papers she had signed at the time. On the other hand, she believed that Marius Kristensen was in foster care – and therefore not that it was an actual adoption.

Therefore, 70-year-old Marius Kristensen now wants redress from the Danish state.

– When I get in a really bad mood, I think they (the government, ed.) are busy pushing it aside in the hope that we will die before an apology comes. So the anger is there.

Adoptions in Greenland until 1979

Traditionally, adoptions in Greenland have taken place within the family, following the tradition of ‘gift children’ or foster children. The form is formally called ‘open adoption’, as the child and the biological parents know and often have a relationship with each other. In 1923, the Danish Adoption Act was put into effect for Greenland. The law is based on ‘closed adoptions’, where all ties and rights between the biological parents and the child are broken. In 1976, a new Danish Adoption Act was put into effect for Greenland. It tightened the rules for out-of-home adoption and reduced the number of ‘closed adoptions’ in Greenland to a minimum.

Since the late 1970s, Greenland has had virtually no adoptions out of the country.

The Greenlandic Adoption Act was last amended in 2010 and currently includes three different forms of adoption: family adoption, stepchild adoption and stranger adoption. The first two forms of adoption are the most common.Sources: “Kinship and gender in Greenlandic urban communities – feelings of connectedness”, 2010 and the High Commissioner in Greenland and information from the Adoptionssamrådet.

Sources: “Kinship and gender in Greenlandic urban communities – feelings of connectedness”, 2010 and the Royal Commissioner in Greenland and information from the Adoptions Council.

A rage that 74-year-old Margrete Johansen shares. She was adopted in Ilulissat in 1951 by a Danish couple who worked in Greenland. A story that KNR has previously reported.

Margrete Johansen later became known as the stolen child in her family. As an adult, she got in touch with her original mother, who told her that she had been forced to sign the documents. Some Danish documents, which she, as a Greenlandic speaker, could not understand.

– My mother called what the Dane had done to her and me the greatest crime.

– That’s why I want justice. I want an acknowledgement that what happened was wrong, says 74-year-old Margrete Johansen.

Reconciliation is just as important

Inuit Ataqatigiit parliamentary politician Aaja Chemnitz also finds it difficult to understand why there has not yet been a reaction from the government.

– It is extremely important right now, when we are experiencing pressure from the American side, that Greenland and Denmark stand together on these issues of reconciliation, which are so important for us in Greenland, says Aaja Chemnitz and continues:

– It is really a shame that the Danish government is not showing greater political will to resolve these cases.

In June 2023, the Greenlandic Government and the Danish government agreed to launch a historical study that will examine the history between the two countries from World War II to the present day. The terms of reference for the study mentions the practice of adopting Greenlandic children from 1950 to 1980 as an opportunity to delve into.

But three years later, according to DR, the investigation has not yet begun. The Greenlandic Government informs DR that they will reconsider the investigation.

Aaja Chemnitz, do you think that Greenlandic politicians should also take greater responsibility for shedding light on these cases and starting the historical investigation?

Aaja Chemnitz, do you think that Greenlandic politicians should also take greater responsibility for shedding light on these cases and starting the historical investigation?

– There is no doubt that we all have a responsibility. But it seems that there is a little more pressure from Greenlandic politics than there is from the Danish side.

– All the nice state visits that we are experiencing in Greenland at the moment are really nice. But if there is no progress on these reconciliation cases at the same time, it does not make sense.

– Therefore, it is an important signal to send to the Danish government that reconciliation is at least as important and perhaps more important than it has been before. Because these cases are so crucial for the relationship between Greenland and Denmark, she says.

KNR has also tried to get an interview with parliamentary politician from Naleraq, Aki-Matilda Høegh-Dam, but it has not been possible before the deadline.

KNR is working to get an interview with the Danish Minister of Social Affairs, Sophie Hæstorp Andersen.