Give me my child back

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1:07I'm Sofia Bettica and you're listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

1:17Outside Parliament, in the Danish capital Copenhagen, people have come from across the country, holding photos of their sons and daughters, with signs saying, bring them home.

1:32We are standing here together, for it is the day of mourning. You have lost many of your children. You have lost many of your grandchildren. Most of the parents here are originally from Greenland, a former Danish colony. They say their children were unfairly taken from them. Sami was taken from me two hours after I gave birth to her. When they took her, I felt like everything became black. People were made to take so-called parenting competency tests, psychological assessments that contributed to hundreds of Greenlandic children being removed from their families. The way these tests are used is a scandal.

2:16Last May, the tests were outlawed for use on Greenlanders. Now, the Danish government says they're going to review hundreds of cases.

2:28Some parents are being reunited with their children, but others have been told for them it's too late. I never get to see his first steps, first ward, his first school day. Even for those whose children have been returned, there are profound and lasting consequences. Are you afraid of losing your daughter again? Every day. I'm Sofia Bettica, the World Service's global health reporter. I'm investigating why hundreds of Greenlandic children have been removed from their parents and taken into care across Denmark. I'll be finding out what these parenting competency tests are and why they were used in the first place.

3:18I think all the children wrongfully removed need a apology and their parents from home state. As families fight to be reunited, the government has pledged to examine around 300 cases. But will the review bring families back together or result in more heartbreak?

3:49My upbringing was very Greenlandic. My father was a hunter and a fisherman when we were growing up. Kira has thick black hair, small tattoos at the corner of her eyes, and has wrapped a red and white Greenlandic flag around her shoulders. I still smile when I think about memories from my childhood. It's September 2025. She's at a protest in Copenhagen, writing a banner. It reads, Indigenous people shall not be subjected to any act of genocide, including forcibly removing children. Later, she's on stage, microphone in hand, explaining the length of time it's been since Danish social services took her daughter from her.

4:44315 days, 44 weeks, 44 bouquets of flowers. When she's off stage, Kira switches between speaking in Greenlandic and English. I made a promise when she was born that I will bring her flowers every week. In that way she is with me. Like Kira, others here too say their children were unfairly taken from them and are demanding justice. Parenting competency tests are still being used across the country for Danish people, but in May 2025, they were banned for Greenlanders after evidence showed they are inappropriate for their culture. A new specialist unit has been set up and is expected to review around 300 cases where Greenlandic children were removed from their parents' care.

5:40Kira's case is one of them.

5:47Sami was taken from me two hours after I gave birth to her. When they took her, I felt like everything became black, that a part of my soul died. It felt like everything stopped. Kira shared a video with us. It's of the moment in hospital her baby was taken from her by a nurse. You can hear Kira sobbing and whispering sorry to her newborn baby.

6:18At her home in Tisted in northern Denmark, there's an empty cot next to Kira's bed. Unworn baby clothes meant for her daughter, Zami, are folded nearby. When I come home from work, I can say, hi, Zami. Just like when I go to bed, I always sit at her bed and say, goodnight, Zami. It's hard, but it's my way to say she's with me. Zami is the third of Kira's children to be taken against her will. She says initial contact with social workers started with a knock on the door out of the blue. Documents from the council cite concerns that her eldest daughter was struggling with language development. This led to assessments and tests on Kira.

7:10What were these parenting competency tests like? What kind of questions did they ask you? They asked the question like, who is Mother Teresa? some of the tests I had to play with a doll and they were criticising me for not having eyes contact. These kinds of questions are part of a far-reaching assessment designed to evaluate intellectual and personal capability to meet a child's needs. They can cover general knowledge, logic, memory and emotional understanding. parents would normally be required to take the tests after extensive contact with social services. Kira's assessment concluded that trauma during her upbringing affects her parenting, preventing her from meeting her children's needs.

8:09I asked them, why do I have to take these tests? They said, to see if I could be a part of civilisation or to see if I could act like a human being. I have been treated very badly. I know who I am as a person. I know that I can be a good mother. She says on multiple occasions she was pressured by psychologists and social workers to have abortions. When I was on the test, psychologists asked me a question. Why do you keep this baby? And my test is that I'm not responsible enough. I didn't take my responsibility for getting abortion. I didn't want to get abortion.

8:59For centuries, Greenland was ruled from Copenhagen. After World War II, Denmark launched a campaign to modernise its colony, aiming to bring it more in line with Danish cultural norms. Soren Rudd is a historian at the University of Copenhagen. A number of reform policies were established in Greenland in that period. They were aiming to renew housing. They were aiming to provide better health services, improve the school system and education. So in general, just provide better living conditions for Greenlanders and conditions that were more similar to the Danish conditions. So the problems related to these welfare-oriented policies was that many Greenlanders felt kind of overwhelmed and felt that the Danish cultural norms were dominating.

9:54And a lot of these kind of welfare-oriented policies also were implemented in a kind of authoritarian way in order to push this development forward.

10:10For years, campaigners have raised concerns about the way children are taken from Greenlandic parents. Dina Namensen co-founded SELA 360, an NGO challenging the system. The way these tests are used is a scandal. It's shocking and it's dehumanising. The Danish authorities think that the Greenlandic people are less civilised, they are less smart, but actually they are just less privileged. They have this main goal to have the children taken and then they just follow that lead. And why? It sounds evil and I don't think people are actually evil, but I just think that they have too many prejudices against the Greenlandic people.

10:58They would rather see that the children are brought up in another Danish home. Back in Thirstead, Kira is in her kitchen preparing food. One hour a week, she's allowed to visit her daughter. Every so often, she makes Sami Greenlandic meals, like chicken heart soup, and then takes them to her. Today, one of Kira's other daughters is joining her. This is Zoe. She is my eldest daughter. She was forced to be removed when she was nine years old. She returned to me when she turned 18. When I was taken from my mom, they erased my identity, my Greenlandic language. I counted every second until I finally turned 18 so I can come home to my mom.

11:51My sister was taken away from us, and I'm making sure my mom is strong enough to take her back. To get Sammy back, it will mean the world to me.

12:10While Kira waits, hoping for news, not every case is under review. Some have been permanently closed. In a small town by the North Sea, we meet Johanne. She lives near the beach with her husband Ulrich and her two dogs. Back in 2010, Johanne was assessed in a parenting competency test. She did not have an interpreter. The local council told us she didn't need one, even though Danish is her second language. The assessment found her to have mental retardation, and that her children faced physical and psychological neglect because of Johanna's alleged mental health issues, including periods of depression and anxiety.

12:57Her two children were taken from her. Then, nine years later, Johanna became pregnant again. She shows me photos of her newborn son. How old was he? He was a month old. We have another picture when he was one day old. Wow. Is that you? Yep. That is me. That is the father. And son. And son. Very cute. Johannes switches between speaking English and Greenlandic.

13:34When I got pregnant, we were happy. Happy because we weren't expecting to get pregnant at our age. But their happiness was short-lived. Eight months into her pregnancy, Johanne learned that she and Ulrich would both face parenting competency tests once again. This second assessment described Johanne as childish and narcissistic. narcissistic. Ulrich, it said, was self-centred and lacking empathy. The conclusion? They could not meet the needs of their child. They felt the outcome was predetermined. The social worker used to knock on the table and say, Johanna, remember that our goal is to have the child put up for adoption.

14:27One of the tests Johanne and Ulrich and many of the families we spoke to had to take is the Rorschach test. Developed in the 1920s, it analyses personality traits based on how people interpret a series of abstract shapes.

14:48There were two identical stains with some red in the middle. I saw a Greenlandic woman cutting a seal. So I answered smiling, it's a Greenlandic woman cutting a seal and removing the intestines. The psychologist's expression changed and they said, are you serious? You're such a barbarian.

15:12In traditional Greenlandic culture, where many people hunt for their livelihood, seeing blood from a young age is normal. but in Denmark the same response in a psychological test could be seen as a cause for concern. But child removals don't just happen because of these tests. In Denmark they are part of a much wider process, one that disproportionately affects Greenlandic people. They're estimated to be proportionally nearly six times more likely to have their children taken than the general population. Some point to the fact that in Greenland there are high levels of alcoholism and child abuse.

15:55Critics like campaigner Tina Namensen argue these issues can fuel prejudice in child removal decisions in Denmark. I think the whole assessment is problematic because the testing is just one part of the assessment. We have gone through so many cases, it's the same. Same assumptions about alcoholism, about them being neglected as children, about them being sexually assaulted as children, and you can find it in all the cases. I'm Sofia Bettica and you're listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

16:38We focus on the part of the internet that most people don't know about. It's called the dark web. Undercover in the furthest corners of the dark web, US special agents are on a mission to locate and rescue children from abuse. Move in now. From the BBC World Service, World of Secrets, the darkest web follows their shocking investigations. Search for World of Secrets wherever you get your BBC podcasts. America is changing and so is the world. But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere. I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C.

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18:11Johanne and Ulrich were told that their newborn child would be removed from their care and permanently adopted.

18:21It was very stressful and it led to me giving birth one month prematurely. I didn't want to give birth. It's a struggle when you're about to be a mother, when your body is in pain. I was excited but also afraid.

18:41Johannes starts crying and leaves the room. Later, she tells me her son was taken from them a few weeks after birth. At first, they were allowed occasional visits. But in 2020, he was adopted by another family. They haven't seen him since. Their case was closed and will not be reviewed by the government. This is the last time we were together in one picture, in August 2020. I haven't seen him after. I never get to see his first steps, first word, his first tooth, his first school day. We put Johanne and Ulrich's case to Denmark's Social Affairs Minister, Sophie Anderson, who's leading the government review of child removals.

19:38Well, as a mother myself, I completely understand why it's heartbreaking. It is like this, that if a child is placed outside the family, and later on the municipality decide that this child should be adopted by a whole other family, it's just a very thorough process. And it's actually a process that is a lot more than this parent's competence test. So for many reasons, I must say that we cannot undo this. We cannot undo adoptions because we have to look at where the child is today. And we also have to look at the fact that at some place, also our court system decided that this child should be adopted by another family without consent from their biological parents because they thought that they were never going to be able to take care of this child.

20:32You say it's heartbreaking, but you do have the power to do something about it. We cannot go back and look into the cases again. Those cases are closed because these children are today placed in a loving and caring family. And we have to look at the child and what is good for them. And if they are integrated into a new family and we don't no longer have their record because they're now integrated into a family that is taking care of them, then there's no way for us to go into those cases again.

21:04Some long-separated families are beginning to reunite outside the official government review process.

21:16We meet Pilunggwak in Alberg, one of Denmark's biggest cities.

21:26Today, she's picking up her youngest daughter from school, who's now six years old. She was recently returned to her after more than four years apart, a moment Pilungwak will never forget. I'm crying a lot, but at the same time I'm laughing. Oh my God, she's going home.

21:53Now they're making up for lost time, bouncing together on a trampoline in their garden. They laugh, play and hold each other tight. It's a brief glimpse of normality, but in reality, rebonding after so much time apart is proving complicated. It was hard to begin again, be a mum. I feel like I didn't know about my youngest child. I don't know what she loves to do. I do not know what time she goes to bed. One day she asked me, are you my mom? Yes, you are my daughter. But mom, you look like a Queensland person. Yes, I am and you are a Queensland people. She is very scared of losing me. Are you scared that your daughter could be taken away again?

22:50Every day. They can take her in one hour. They can do that again. Pilungwak also has two older children. They remain in foster care but do get to visit their mum. They're at her house when we're there. The whole family sits around the kitchen table drawing pictures. It's precious time together. This is where I grow up, the mountains. several years ago Pilungwak agreed that all her three children could be placed into temporary care her relationship with the children's father had broken down and she turned to the council for help but instead of being able to bring them home when she felt ready she was asked to take a parenting competency test the assessment said she had a pattern of entering dysfunctional relationships, a claim she rejects.