Naalakkersuisoq for Children, Youth and Families, Mads Pedersen (IA), asks the Danish Minister of Social Affairs in an open letter to reconsider the refusal to provide compensation to four adoptees.
Naalakkersuisoq for Children, Youth and Families, Mads Pedersen (IA), is now addressing the case of the group of Greenlandic adoptees who want compensation from the Danish state.
On National Day, June 21st of last year, four people who were adopted from Greenland to Denmark submitted a claim for compensation totaling one million kroner to the Danish state for violating their human rights when they were removed from their families in the 1950s and decades later.
On Monday, KNR was able to report that the claim for compensation has now been rejected. The Ministry of Social Affairs rejects the claim, as the ministry believes that the cases are outdated.
At the same time, the ministry also does not believe that there is sufficient documentation that the then applicable rules for adoption were not complied with in the four cases.
But Mads Pedersen does not agree with this. In an open letter to the Danish Minister of Social Affairs, Sophie Hæstorp Andersen, he writes that it is “well documented that the adoptions took place without valid consent from the biological parents.”
– In several cases, the parents believed that it was temporary care. This is a violation of the rights of both the parents and the children, he writes in the letter and continues:
– It is therefore particularly disappointing that the Minister of Social Affairs and Housing rejects the claim for compensation, citing that the adoptions took place according to ‘the then rules for adoption’.
– We know today that many of these rules were inadequate, and the adoption practices of the time were characterized by opacity and inadequate consent. You cannot hide behind the legislation of the past when the consequences are so serious and long-lasting.
The case should be reopened
Therefore, naalakkersuisoq now requests that the case be reopened and the decision reassessed.
– It is necessary for the Danish state to provide them with redress, not only financially, but also morally, by collectively acknowledging the failure that both they and their families have been subjected to.
– It is crucial that the Danish state acknowledges the mistakes that have been made in the past and takes responsibility for the consequences it continues to have for those affected. I am disappointed that the Danish state does not take the hurt and pain it has caused to those who were wrongfully adopted seriously, writes Mads Pedersen in the letter.
Rejection of me as a human being
Two of those demanding compensation from the state are Margrete Johansen and Marius Kristensen. And they are also disappointed with the decision that has now been made.
– It is a total rejection of me as a human being and a degradation of the life I have lived, and I am naturally angry, said Margrete Johansen, who is now 74 years old, to KNR on Monday.
But they are ready to take the matter to court.
– The compensation itself is not that important to me. I’m more concerned with the fact that the authorities – society – acknowledge that something was wrong. So an apology would be really liberating for me to hear. An acknowledgement that something was really wrong in the social system at the time, and that is what is being apologized for, says Marius Kristensen.
KNR is trying to get an interview about the case with Minister of Social Affairs and Housing Sophie Hæstorp Andersen.