Four Greenlanders threaten to sue the state in an adoption case

Although the case currently concerns four people, there may be hundreds of similar cases.

Four Greenlanders are demanding a total of one million in compensation from the Danish state. This is done in a draft summons sent to the Danish state.

The case concerns four Greenlandic children who were previously adopted to Danish foster parents.

Lawyer Mads Pramming wants the state to pay DKK 250,000 in compensation individually to the four people. He believes that the persons were adopted from Greenland to Denmark on a legally questionable basis.

Although the new case concerns only four people, there may be hundreds of similar cases in the period from the 1950s to the 1970s, the draft summons reads.

The children were removed from their families in Greenland and were then adopted by couples in Denmark. The lawyer does not believe that the Danish state has sufficiently ensured the protection of the children's rights.

- The Greenlanders thought they had lent a child to some foster parents, but they had not understood that it was for life and that they would not see their children again, says Mads Pramming to P1 Morgen.

He says that the Greenlandic parents were under the belief that their children would be taken into care, but not that they would be adopted by the Danish couple.

Danish apology in similar cases in 2020

The case comes after the Danish state has already given an apology in a similar case, where Greenlandic children also came to Denmark without having given their consent. It happened back in 2020.

READ ALSO : The government gives an official apology to 22 Greenlandic children

Here Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S) made an official apology, and six people were subsequently paid compensation of DKK 250,000. This happened after the state reached a settlement in the case.

The threat of the subpoena has been sent to the Prime Minister's Office today on Greenland's National Day. Therefore, Mads Pramming hopes that the state will enter into a dialogue about the case, so that the compensation can be paid without a court case.

DR is trying to get a comment from the Prime Minister's Office.