\n<\/p>\n
\u2018N<\/span>ow your two hours begin.\u201d The countdown started when Keira Alexandra Kronvold had just given birth in the early hours of 7 November 2024. Keira, 38, was originally granted just one hour with her daughter, Zammi, before her baby was to be removed from her and taken to foster parents \u2013 but the midwife begged authorities to give them more time. Before Zammi\u2019s arrival, the midwife asked if Keira had any wishes. \u201cI\u00a0said, \u2018I want hand and footprints. I want to grab her, I don\u2019t want you to catch her when she is born. I want to catch her myself.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n During labour \u2013 which lasted just an hour and a half \u2013 Keira kept checking whether her 20-year-old daughter, Zoe, who had never seen a birth before, was OK; and she was determined not to scream, to avoid waking up the other mothers and babies on the ward. But when Zammi arrived, everything else \u2013 the months of stress, worry and pressure \u2013 gave way to pure joy. \u201cI just laid back,\u201d she says, arms cradled and slowly reclining on her sofa, as she re-enacts the moment at home in the town of Thisted, northern Denmark, \u201cbecause I had to keep her warm. She was so beautiful. That emotional feeling is indescribable. Right there: unconditional love, pure happiness, all that joy.\u201d She wished Zammi a happy birthday and told her how much she loved her. She cried tears of joy, counted Zammi\u2019s tiny fingers.<\/p>\n And then the mood shifted. \u201cIt feels like you come into the darkness,\u201d says Keira, her body frozen. \u201cNow I have to count the minutes. That pure joy was gone. And that moment I felt I could show my emotions.\u201d She started to breastfeed Zammi. Even letting go for the midwife to do her checks was torturous.<\/p>\n <\/span>A photograph of Zammi sits in the cradle that Keira had prepared for her<\/span><\/p>\n An hour passed. She was told she needed to start preparing to hand her daughter over. Keira talks about the contents of the bag she had prepared for Zammi. Seven months on, Keira can still see all the objects before her: bottle, dummy, warm clothes, blanket, shampoo, lotion. \u201cI gave her a diaper, I\u00a0put her clothes on,\u201d says Keira, \u201cand the woman came in.\u201d She cries as she remembers. \u201cI had to make sure my tears didn\u2019t fall on my daughter\u2019s face. Zoe held her for a couple of minutes. I remember every small detail about her.\u201d<\/p>\n Zammi had a tiny nose, says Keira with a laugh, and she remembers her facial expressions. She had black hair and blue eyes when she was born. Her hands, says Keira, were like Zoe\u2019s, and her feet were definitely those of Zammi\u2019s father. She had a heart-shaped birthmark where her chest meets her neck and another birthmark on the inside of her little finger. When she made noises, Keira was overcome by the beauty of her voice. \u201cThere was a huge connection,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen she looked at me while breastfeeding and she closed her eyes, she felt so safe.\u201d<\/p>\n A woman came to collect the baby from hospital. After handing over\u00a0the\u00a0bag, Keira kissed Zammi. \u201cI\u00a0made a promise that I\u00a0was going to fight for her,\u201d she says. \u201cI promised her I\u00a0would send her flowers every week. I promised her that she will come home soon.\u201d After Zammi was taken away, Keira lay on the bed for a long time crying, her body shaking while the midwife gave her stitches. The midwife invited Keira to stay the night in hospital,\u00a0but she couldn\u2019t bear to. So she went home alone, with just a box containing her placenta, congratulations messages pouring in from well-wishers, who did not know Keira would be forced to part from her baby so quickly,<\/strong> while at the opposite end of town Zammi, still just hours old, met her foster parents for the first time.<\/p>\n K<\/span>eira is one of countless Greenlandic women in Denmark who have been separated from their children after undergoing highly controversial \u201cparenting competency\u201d tests (known as for\u00e6ldrekompetenceunders\u00f8gelse<\/em> or FKU) used by social services to assess whether parents are suitable to care for their children. In common with many of these cases, Zammi was placed with Danish foster parents. Keira fears Zammi will lose her language and identity as a result. For years, parenting competency tests have been criticised by campaigners and human rights bodies that say they are culturally unsuitable for people from Inuit backgrounds, and therefore discriminatory.<\/p>\n Generally, the tests are used if a child is believed to be struggling with challenges in behaviour, feelings or thoughts \u2013 and will form one part of a social worker\u2019s investigations, says clinical psychologist Isak C Nellemann, who used to perform FKU for the Danish state, and now helps advise families and lawyers in cases like Keira\u2019s. But, often, he says, simply being Greenlandic will be enough to get the attention of social\u00a0workers.<\/p>\n The tests cover attachment, personality traits, cognitive abilities and psychopathology, and take about 15-20 hours. It is almost impossible to pass them, says Nellemann; even he and his colleagues have failed to do so. Questions can include \u201cWhat is glass made of?\u201d and \u201cWhat is the name of the big staircase in Rome?\u201d Nellemann argues that the tests are culturally specific and a poor way to measure innate intelligence. \u201cThere is a lot of stigmatisation of people from Greenland,\u201d he says. \u201cWe don\u2019t know why we should use these tests for parenting.\u201d<\/p>\n When Keira was given the test, for Zammi, she says she was told it was to see if she was \u2018civilised enough\u2019<\/p>\n He even goes so far as to compare the tests to a tool of fascism. \u201cYou take only one kind of people as the \u2018real\u2019 ones. We only choose the white, or \u2018real\u2019, Danish\u00a0people.\u201d<\/p>\n Children with Greenlandic parents living in Denmark are significantly more likely to be placed into care than those with Danish parents. A 2022 report found that 5.6% were removed compared with 1% of those with a Danish background. Louise Holck, the director of the Danish Institute for Human Rights, has said the FKU tests \u201cfail to account for potential language barriers or cultural differences\u201d.<\/p>\n Until 1953, Greenland was ruled by Denmark as a colony. Now the territory is part of the Danish kingdom, with Copenhagen controlling its foreign and security policy. In recent years, there have been multiple scandals about historic and more recent population-control practices that have been described by many in Greenland, including the former prime minister, as a genocide. These include the IUD scandal, in which 4,500 women and girls were fitted with contraception without their knowledge or consent between 1966 and 1970. Many of the details have only recently come to\u00a0light.<\/p>\n Keira, who has three children, all of whom have been removed from her, was subjected to an FKU test in 2014 that is understood to have contributed to the removal of Zoe, who was then nine, and Keira\u2019s son, Nolan, who was just eight months old and breastfeeding; he is now 11. Nolan, whom Keira sees twice a week, now lives with his father. Keira was given another test last year that contributed to the removal of Zammi. When she was given the most recent test, she says she was told it was to see if she was \u201ccivilised enough\u201d. The two assessments, 10 years apart, were made by the same Danish-speaking psychologist, who was also Keira\u2019s therapist. Keira\u2019s first language is Kalaallisut (West Greenlandic). She is not fluent in Danish.<\/p>\n <\/span>From left: Keira\u2019s daughter, Zoe, who was taken from her mother aged nine, pictured with a drawing of one of her hallucinations.<\/span><\/p>\n Keira\u2019s lawyer, Jeanette Gj\u00f8rret, who specialises in children\u2019s rights, says there were \u201cmany errors in the case, including in the psychological tests\u201d. She did not have a translator for either test, and the case for Zammi\u2019s removal rested heavily on the cases of her first two children, in which there were also errors. \u201cThe decision was taken before Zammi was born, and Keira was not given the opportunity to live in supported accommodation in order to keep her baby, which she would have been prepared to do if necessary. In Keira\u2019s case, the removal of all three of her children has been largely down to the viewpoint of one person,\u201d Gj\u00f8rret adds. She did not have legal representation or advice while the assessments were made.<\/p>\n The 2024 FKU assessment, conducted just over a month before Zammi was born, concluded that although \u201cKeira sincerely wants to bring her little daughter home\u201d and \u201cthe child is growing and thriving [in the womb]\u201d, Keira\u2019s personality had \u201cnot developed sufficiently\u201d and that \u201cdifficulties may arise regarding linguistic and cognitive stimulation of the young child\u201d.<\/p>\n It added: \u201cKeira states that it is common in Greenlandic culture that even small facial features have communicative significance \u2026 but Zammi will grow up in Denmark and will be dependent on being able to read the social contexts she will be involved in \u2013 and therefore needs to learn this in order to be able to cope in social relationships with peers.\u201d To have her baby returned to her, she would have to work on multiple areas and \u201cshow development\u201d \u2013 including \u201cexpressing herself in Danish\u201d, becoming \u201cmore nuanced in her approach to herself and her surroundings\u201d and being \u201cable to express herself with clearer facial expressions\u201d.<\/p>\n As soon as I see her bed I crumble. It\u2019s like I\u2019m living by my will<\/span>Zammi\u2019s empty cot.<\/span><\/p>\n Although Danish authorities consider Zammi\u2019s removal to be legal because a court has issued a judgment in the case, Gj\u00f8rret does not agree. \u201cIt is my assessment that Zammi should not have been placed with foster parents,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Having unsuccessfully fought the case in Holstebro court of appeal in April, they have applied to take it to\u00a0the high court, which, if successful, could have far-reaching consequences for Greenlandic victims of the\u00a0tests. She has requested that the high court overturn\u00a0the decision \u201cin its entirety\u201d on the basis of the Institute for Human Rights\u2019 findings and a new law, which came into force in May, banning the use of FKU on Greenlandic people. She is still waiting for a decision.<\/p>\n Despite the ban, parenting competency tests are still being used by municipalities as evidence against Greenlandic parents at the National Social Appeals Board, Gj\u00f8rret says. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Housing denies this, saying that \u201cSince May 1, 2025, the National Social Appeals Board has not used standardised psychological tests for decisions on placement of a child from a Greenlandic family in care outside the home.\u201d<\/p>\n Things could be about to change. Laila Bertelsen, the founder of Foreningen Mapi, an association that helps Inuit parents in Denmark, says she is aware of one mother whose separation from her children has been reversed since the change of law. Often, she says, cultural differences \u2013 language, family life and upbringing \u2013 are misinterpreted by Danish studies and professional assessments. \u201cThis means that the children are not only removed physically, but also cut free from their cultural roots and identity.\u201d Forced removal at birth should only be done in \u201cextremely urgent situations, where there is a documented danger\u201d, she says. In all other cases, families should instead be given support, attachment and togetherness. \u201cNot only for the child\u2019s safety, but for the child\u2019s self-understanding and identity formation.\u201d<\/p>\n Y<\/span>ou can feel the empty cot in Keira\u2019s apartment before you see it. An absence radiates from the unoccupied bassinet, lovingly draped with sheer fabric. A bee and a dragonfly hang down from a mobile. Next to it, a little car seat and a baby bouncer lie in wait.<\/p>\n Then you see the tiny nappies, lined up on the changing station alongside a fresh bottle of baby lotion and cotton wool. On the windowsill lies a worn copy of the Danish attachment parenting book <\/strong>Den <\/em>Bedste <\/em>Start p\u00e5 <\/em>Livet<\/em> (The Best Start to Life). But perhaps it is the cupboard full of newborn clothes folded in neat piles that most bluntly reveals that no baby has ever lived\u00a0there.<\/p>\n For seven months, Keira\u2019s home in Thisted, a market town on the Limfjorden strait in the north-west corner of Denmark, has waited for Zammi to come home. Keira is allowed to visit her youngest daughter once a week for exactly one hour on a Friday morning. Zoe and Nolan are only allowed to see their baby sister once a month. Keira, who works in a fish factory, spends the week counting down to Friday at 10.30am.<\/p>\n She struggles to sleep and finds it difficult to eat. \u201cI\u00a0ask many people, \u2018Please pray for my daughter or I\u00a0can\u2019t sleep.\u2019 Nights can be for ever<\/em>. I count days.\u201d She\u00a0pauses. \u201cIn the beginning, I counted hours.\u201d<\/p>\n When she first went back to work, 10 weeks after Zammi was born, she was still struggling to stand for long periods, and at times had to hide in the toilet to cry. She has spent the last decade fighting to be reunited with her older children, and now Zammi, and yet she finds the strength to keep going. \u201cIt\u2019s like I\u2019m living by my will,\u201d she says. She tries to stay positive by working on strategies to get her baby back, and is recording her experiences for a book. \u201cI am thinking, \u2018What is the next step? What should I do?\u2019 But as soon as I see her bed, I crumble.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Keira and Zoe at home in Thisted.<\/span><\/p>\n Keira separated from Zammi\u2019s father, who is Danish, when she was four months pregnant, but says he remains an active part of hers and Zammi\u2019s lives. He has not spoken out publicly. \u201cHe loves his daughter,\u201d she says. \u201cBut he is scared that the world will judge him.\u201d She believes her former partner fears the shame, mental toll and pressure of becoming a public figure would be too much.<\/p>\n Keira first spoke out on the night she came home from hospital. Unable to handle all the questions about what was going on, she decided to explain her situation on Facebook. She didn\u2019t look at it for a couple of days, but when she did, her video had gone viral. She had hundreds of messages from people expressing sympathy and giving their condolences. \u201cI was so touched by it,\u201d she says. \u201cI thought, \u2018People are hearing my voice.\u2019 That\u2019s what gave me motivation to fight back.\u201d While Keira\u2019s case is one of many, the vast majority of people who have their children taken away do not have the strength to go public.<\/p>\n Protests over Keira\u2019s case took place in Copenhagen and Nuuk, <\/strong>and with Danish-Greenlandic relations under a global spotlight after Donald Trump\u2019s threats to take control of the territory, the campaign started to get political traction. Keira attended one of the demonstrations 32 days after giving birth, when she was still bleeding and struggling with milk production. In January, the FKU testing ban was announced by the Danish government. How did Keira find the courage to speak out? \u201cI say to myself, if I don\u2019t do it, nobody will. I don\u2019t care if somebody judges me. I know if I change something now, I will change something for Zammi.\u201d<\/p>\n Keira grew up in Qeqertaq, a small village in western Greenland, with her mother, who has recently died, and father, who has retired after many years as the director of a fish factory. She is still close to him and most of her five siblings, who are \u201cheartbroken\u201d about her separation from Zammi. Keira has happy childhood memories of driving the dog sleigh and hunting with her father. Every year, the family would spend three months living in nature. She gave birth to Zoe in Greenland and later moved to Denmark with a plan to study massage therapy.<\/p>\n For Zoe, who sits quietly in Keira\u2019s living room as we talk, nothing can turn back the clock. After being removed from her mother at nine, she spent the rest of her childhood with a foster family and in children\u2019s homes, and says she was the victim of emotional abuse. But she is determined to get justice for her sister, who she hopes will be reunited with their mother before her first birthday. During the court hearing in April, she stood outside in silent protest with banners she had made from fabric, reading: \u201cPlease bring my little sister back home\u201d and \u201cFKU is only for Danish citizens\u201d.<\/p>\n Speaking softly, she says that before she was forced to live with a foster family, she enjoyed school and was especially good at speaking English, maths and playing chess. She hated getting up early in the morning and fondly remembers her mother, who is a morning person, plaiting her hair while she was still asleep.<\/p>\n Keira says social services suddenly began visiting after Zoe had started school, saying they wanted to check whether she was taking good enough care of her children. But what they really meant, she says, is \u201cyou have to do it in our<\/em> way. Not your <\/em>way.\u201d Among the problems they had with doing things Keira\u2019s way was that they spoke Greenlandic at home rather than Danish.<\/p>\n <\/span>Keira on her way to visit Zammi. She is allowed to see her for one hour every Friday<\/span><\/p>\n Having grown up in a village where she says \u201ceverybody was a family member\u201d, the state intervention she was subjected to in Denmark was alien and disconcerting. She was being regularly observed at home \u2013 including while making dinner, breastfeeding, taking a walk. If she spoke to her children in Greenlandic, she had to translate it to Danish for the social worker. What they deemed \u201cmistakes\u201d started to pile up, and they would bring them up months later. These, she says, could be anything from the way she spoke to Zoe at dinner to her not wanting her daughter to walk home alone from school when she was eight years old. \u201cNice and quiet, collecting your mistakes,\u201d says Keira. \u201cIt was frightening, scary. I was always nervous. I always felt pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n Zoe, who was recently diagnosed with schizophrenia, started experiencing hallucinations when she was with her foster family. At one point, Keira says softly, her daughter was suicidal. Zoe shows me some recent drawings of the faces that she sees. One of the figures represents a person who was responsible for looking after her when she was removed from her mother.<\/p>\n When Keira became pregnant with Zammi, she decided to inform Thisted municipality in the hope of working together to ensure she could keep her once she was born. She was nervous going to the doctor, because she says she had previously been given the ultimatum either to have an abortion or face the baby being taken away after the birth. She agreed to undergo another parenting competency test in an attempt to cooperate. But in the session, the psychologist brought up her previous abortions and asked her to show her parenting skills by playing, singing and talking with a doll, checking whether she made eye contact. \u201cThe problem is, I didn\u2019t grow up with a doll,\u201d she says, adding that her real baby, Zammi, was busy kicking in her stomach. \u201cThey made me draw and they were criticising it, that I didn\u2019t draw a face. I drew a mum and baby.\u201d<\/p>\n She first heard the municipality was planning to remove Zammi from her during her eight-month scan. One minute she was talking to her, laughing, watching her kick. The next, she says, the doctor or nurse told her: \u201cWell, it looks like they chose to take the baby.\u201d She was incredulous. \u201cIt felt like the whole world was crashing down. I thought, should I travel to another country? I don\u2019t have any money.\u201d When she called the municipality, she says they claimed ignorance, but it later turned out to be true.<\/p>\n <\/span>A photograph of Keira and Zammi taken during one of Keira\u2019s weekly visits<\/span><\/p>\n According to observation notes of Zammi, shared with me by Keira, her daughter has shown signs of upset after her mother\u2019s visits. \u201cAfter the interaction was over, she became very distant,\u201d says an observation from February. \u201cShe showed no interest in interacting with foster parents or toys.\u201d<\/p>\n Lars Sloth, director of Thisted\u2019s child and family administration, declined to comment on Keira\u2019s case directly, citing a duty of confidentiality. But he acknowleged that in general the change in the law meant that Greenlandic cases should be reprocessed without the use of FKU. Gj\u00f8rret says there is no reason why Keira cannot take care of Zammi, describing her as \u201cvery strong and independent\u201d. Despite all that she has been through with her children, she says she continues to fight for them, holds down a job, and does not drink or take drugs. \u201cI cannot find any reason why she cannot be a mother.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Danish ministry of social affairs and housing said that the decision to place a child or young person in care outside the home is made by the municipal council, and that any placements made before the change in the law could be appealed. <\/strong><\/em> <\/strong>\u201c<\/em>Municipalities are no longer allowed to use standardised psychological tests as part of the child protection examination when making decisions about placing a child from a Greenlandic family in out-of-home-care. Instead, municipalities must use a special unit possessing expertise in Greenlandic language and culture affairs, unless the family does not consent to the use of the special unit.<\/p>\n \u201cThe municipal council is also obligated to request that the specialised unit review all ongoing placements where standardised psychological tests have been used\u00a0or must be assumed to have been used in connection\u00a0with decisions about placing a child from a Greenlandic family.\u201d<\/p>\n O<\/span>n Friday morning, I walk through Keira\u2019s open front door as rain falls in torrents outside, to find her sitting in her living room under soft fairy lights and the silently flickering television, arranging flowers. Every week she takes a different arrangement to Zammi so that she will associate them with her mother\u2019s visits. This ceremonial act of devotion is part of how Keira survives.<\/p>\n She ties up her long dark hair and prepares to leave. Carrying an umbrella, she walks, almost in procession, through the town to see Zammi. When she reaches the suburban street where Zammi\u2019s foster parents live \u2013 low-rise houses, neatly trimmed hedges, flagpoles in the front gardens \u2013 we part ways; she is not allowed to take visitors.<\/p>\n On her return, just over an hour later, Keira is upset that Zammi wasn\u2019t wearing enough clothes and seemed cold, but she also appears to be nourished from spending time with her daughter. We sit in the car as she shows me pictures and videos. Zammi had done her special hello, where she put her hands on Keira\u2019s cheeks, and she is at the stage where she loves looking at mirrors. In a video, Keira coos to Zammi in Greenlandic: \u201cHi little baby. Such a cute little baby. My little darling.\u201d Time goes so fast when they are together. Sometimes she forgets to take pictures.<\/p>\n While she is there, she thinks only of Zammi. Her own feelings can wait till she gets home. It is always hard. Before she gets out of the car, she puts into words the pressure she is under. \u201cIt feels like somebody holding your throat. And they decide how much you can breathe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2018Now your two hours begin.\u201d The countdown started when Keira Alexandra Kronvold had just given birth in the early hours of 7 November 2024. Keira, 38, was originally granted just one hour with her daughter, Zammi, before her baby was to be removed from her and taken to foster parents \u2013 but the midwife begged<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[631,166,1044,2316,2317,2320,2314,2318,630,2319,76,2315,668],"class_list":{"0":"post-9772","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-baby","9":"tag-children","10":"tag-controversial","11":"tag-couldnt","12":"tag-danish","13":"tag-greenlandic","14":"tag-nurse","15":"tag-parenting","16":"tag-parents","17":"tag-separated","18":"tag-test","19":"tag-told","20":"tag-woman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}