After several weeks of stormy weather, minister admits: Knew controversial law would affect adoptees

Only after several adoptees spoke out did the Minister of Employment say that she would change the rules.

Minister of Employment Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen (S) has been in the middle of a storm for a few weeks.

Because it has turned out that the new law on work obligations in connection with cash benefits, which was intended to affect immigrants in particular, would also affect adoptees. This meant that adoptees would not have the same rights as their Danish-born family.

This stirred up emotions among several adoptees and their families, who, among other things, made it clear under #ErJegStadigDanish? that they felt alienated. They were placed in the "immigrant" category in the legislation.

This subsequently caused several parties to raise their voices. And the question of what the minister knew when has been floating in the wind.

But now the minister is lying flat in a new interview with DR.

She knew very well that the law would also affect adoptees before it was passed in the Danish Parliament in December 2024.

Were you aware that adoptees would also be affected by the Work Obligation Act when the law was voted through?

- In reality, the law dates back to 2018 and applies to everyone who was born abroad and traveled to Denmark after they were born. So I've known that all along, says the minister.

But even though Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen had that knowledge, there was no separate political focus on adoptees in the negotiations, she explains.

- I wish I had. Especially to have avoided where we are now.

The 2018 law was implemented by the then VLAK government and tightened the requirements for welfare benefits. However, it only applies to those who entered after 2008.

The new law on compulsory work applies to people who entered after 1968, and is therefore the one that brought the problem into focus.

'It's 100 percent my responsibility'

After it emerged in Information that adoptees would be affected by the new law, several parties have wondered why it has not been mentioned at the negotiating table.

For example, the Conservatives' employment spokesperson, Dina Raabjerg, has called it deeply reprehensible.

- If the minister has been informed about it and has not informed the rest of the Folketing about it, then it is of course serious, she said last week.

Lill Srima Møller Jørgensen is adopted from Sri Lanka and is one of those who has spoken about how she has felt affected by the new law. - I do not feel that this is a fair way to treat me, she says.

But even though the minister knew that the adoptees would be affected, she does not believe that she misled the Folketing.

However, she wishes that the debate had been held back in 2018, but also that it had been discussed when they negotiated the cash benefit reform.

Should you have said: You just have to be aware that when you vote this through, adoptees will also be affected by these rules?

- Even though it's an old law from 2018, it's 100 percent my responsibility. And the new cash benefit reform is my responsibility. That's why I also wish it had been more substantial. I can't change that.

- We have been very clear during the negotiations that ten percent of this target group would be Danes. We have also been very clear that this applied to everyone who had come here from abroad. But we have not paid special attention to adoptees, she says.

When you say: “I wish it had filled up”, do you wish you had informed them about it more clearly yourself?

- Yes, but I actually wish we had had a discussion about it. When we haven't, it's probably because the law I helped pass and the reform I helped negotiate don't deal with who is in the target group. We've just taken the law from 2018.

- But of course it is my responsibility if there are rapporteurs who do not feel that they are well informed. And I could not run away from that responsibility, she says.

Solution on the way

Although the minister acknowledges that she voted through a law with open eyes that would affect adoptees, it was the outcry from the adoptees, who felt their Danishness was being affected, that made the minister want to change the law.

- I am really sorry that the policy I am responsible for has given people that feeling.

Therefore, the minister has had a meeting with the association Adoption & Society today, where a solution to the problem has been on the agenda.

- Initially, it will be to revise the 2018 Act and the superstructure we have created with the cash benefit reform. And then it will be to continue the dialogue in relation to how we ensure that this does not happen in the future, says the minister.

Read also : After several rejections, minister now apologizes to adoptees

And deputy chairperson of Adoption & Society, Sanne Nyvang, has full confidence that a solution will be found.

- We must ensure that adoptees are not affected by this new cash benefit reform, so that they are treated equally, she says.

Adoption & Society has also reached out to the Minister of Social Affairs for a meeting where they will look at the adoption act itself.

- We need to look at how we can ensure that we don't end up in this situation again, so that we can show that Danish society also supports adoptees, and that we ensure the equality that they are entitled to, and that we have always believed in, says Nyvang.