They were the ones who were supposed to become the dialect-speaking elite of Greenland: in 1951, 22 Inuit children were separated from their families and sent to Denmark, the then colonial power. Six are still living and are now seeking compensation from the Copenhagen government, which last year apologized for the fate that befell them.
“They lost their family, their language, their culture and their sense of belonging to a community,” their lawyer, Mants Praming, told Politiken. “This is a violation of their right to private and family authority, based on Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights,” he added.
In a letter to Prime Minister Matthew Fredericksen, the six, aged 70-80, are seeking 250,000 kronor (33,600 euros) in compensation each.
Praming gave the prime minister two weeks to respond to their request, warning that he would then go to court. “We are ready to go to court if the state does not pay,” he assured.
In 1951, 22 children from Greenland, which until 1953 was a Danish colony and then gradually gained its autonomy, were selected to relocate to metropolitan Denmark. They were promised a better life, that they would learn Danish and return to Greenland to become the island’s future elite, under an agreement between Copenhagen and Nuuk, the Greenland capital.
In Denmark, children were deprived of any contact with their relatives. When they returned to Greenland, they did not return home but were taken to an orphanage, although they were not orphans. Many have never seen their families before.
In December, the prime minister formally apologized. “We can not change what happened. “But we can assume our responsibilities and apologize to those we should have cared for but did not do,” Fredericksen said at the time.
The Minister of Social Affairs argued that the apology does not necessarily constitute a commitment to compensation. “The government and I believe that acknowledging the mistakes of the past is the key. “It’s important to learn from these mistakes so that history does not repeat itself,” Astrid Krag told Politiken.
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