Children of Greenlandic parents are placed in children’s homes five to seven times more often than those of Danish parents in Denmark, shows a research paper produced by the Danish National and analysis Centre for Welfare VIVE published on Tuesday.

Danish researcher and author of the paper, Karen Margrethe Dahl, said that some of the placements could have been prevented if the relationship between caseworkers and parents of Greenlandic children in Denmark had been better. The caseworkers are employed by the Danish municipalities and evaluate whether children should be placed in care at a children’s home or a host family.

‘The parents are reluctant to cooperate with caseworkers when they feel misunderstood and have preconceptions of being discriminated against. That contributes to a bad process, which in the end will affect children,’ Dahl said in a press release.

Cultural misunderstandings happen when Greenlandic parents and Danish caseworkers have different perceptions of what a good upbringing or family life is. This can also show at meetings where parents seem passive in the eyes of a caseworker, while the parents’ own understanding is that being withdrawn and humble is a sign of respect.

‘Parents can feel misunderstood and criticised for something in their parenthood, that they perceive as normal in Greenland,’ Dahl explains to Greenlandic Broadcaster KNR.

While the cultural differences do not play a decisive role when a caseworker concludes whether a child needs to move to a children’s home, misunderstandings occurring during cases can make it difficult for parents to take a positive stance during meeting times with their children, once they are placed out of their parent’s care, the report stated.

Flawed psychology test

An issue that was highlighted in the report is the psychological tests that parents must go through during a case where a child might be placed in a children’s home. These tests have been criticised for not taking Greenlandic culture into account, possibly giving flawed results, Danish broadcaster DR reported last week.

Greenlandic parents in Denmark are judged based on psychological tests that are developed for Western cultures. Critics have said that the analysis of facial expressions and figures is not designed to include Greenlandic culture.

‘Every psychological test we use is made for Western populations because many of them are developed in the US and England and are adapted to the Danish context. When we use tests crossing through culture and language – for example, Greenlanders, there’s a risk to misjudge them,’ says Rune Nielsen, senior researcher at Denmark’s biggest hospital, Rigshospitalet, where he investigates cultural flaws in psychological testing.

‘It can indicate a deviating personality if you say something that may doesn’t fit into a normal Danish context,’ Nielsen says.

Lacking knowledge of language and culture

Another focus of the report is the language barrier. In some cases, there are no translators present when Greenlandic parents and caseworkers meet. Sometimes caseworkers are having a difficult time estimating whether parents need a translator, and practical issues of finding a translator also pose a challenge.

‘Sometimes, we see that parents don’t see the need for a translator because they speak sufficient Danish. But that may not be enough for the language used during meetings that have such a decisive element,’ Dahl says.

But it is not only the Danish municipalities having difficulties understanding language and culture among indigenous communities within their realm when providing public support.

Last week, the Postcolonial wrote about the critical lack of Sami language and cultural competencies among social workers in 13 Sápmi Norwegian municipalities, which also has consequences for the people indigenous Norway is governing.

The post Danish authorities lack an understanding of cultural differences when placing Greenlandic children in care  first appeared on The Postcolonial.

The streets of Myanmar are drenched in blood, as the military junta continues its extreme crackdown on protestors. Since the coup d’état against the democratically elected government on February 1^st this year, protesters have roamed the streets to show their discontent with the military junta.

The Burmese human rights organization Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has confirmed the deaths of at least 500 people in relation to the military coup since February 1^st.

The conflict had its’ deadliest day on Saturday, when more than 100 people were killed. A rising tally that was feared by diplomats, commentators and scholars who follows the situation in Myanmar, when armed forces switched water cannons with rubber bullets and live ammunition.

Just two weeks prior, what was described as ‘the bloodiest day of the military crackdown on protestors’ occurred in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon where security forces killed 38 protesters, activists told the BBC.

The military declared martial law in Myanmar, as some protesters allegedly uses sticks and knives, and has attacked Chinese businesses. It is unclear who is actually behind these specific attacks, but protesters believe that China is giving support to the military.

‘This is the darkest moment of the nation and the moment that the dawn is close. The uprising must win,’ parliament leader Mahn Win Khaing Than said in his first public address after gone into hiding, urging protesters to defend themselves against the military crackdown, the BBC reports.

Staging the nation

Myanmar were going through a transition to democracy starting in 2011 after being a military rule for nearly 50 years. The National League for Democracy (NLD) is far the largest political party in the country featuring Nobel prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi as their leader.

In November 2020, Aung San Suu Kyi and NLD won a landslide victory securing 396 out of 476 seats ahead of the military party, reaffirming the countries development into full democracy.

But the military led by general Min Aung Hlaing claimed the vote fraudulent and staged a coup d’état on February 1^st this year, taking full control over Myanmar and have jailed Aung San Suu Kyi and former acting president Win Myint.

The military action has been condemned by various countries and civil unrest has since sparked violence on the streets of Myanmar, where military and police personal are cracking down protesters demonstrating against the junta.

According to Danish ambassador in Myanmar John Nielsen, members of the NLD have created a ‘shadow government’ in hiding and established contact with several national ambassadors in the country.

‘They reach out for the international community and put pressure on international businesses working with the military, discouraging the companies to pay their taxes right now,’ Mr Nielsen told Danish broadcaster DR. ‘The shadow government tries to undermine the military junta by mobilizing joint political pressure from many of Myanmar’s ethnic groups,’ he says.

And the countries ethnic groups could trigger the next stage of what is going to happen in Myanmar.

Christine Schraner Burgener serving as the UN special envoy for Myanmar stated that the Southeast Asian country ‘is on the verge of spiraling into a failed state,’ AP reports.

Armed ethnic groups on Myanmar’s borders are staring to speak out against ‘the brutality of the military’ and this ‘(is) increasing the possibility of civil war at an unprecedented scale,’ Ms Burgener warns.

A full-blown civil war will hurt minority groups even further, as civilians already faces consequences from ongoing conflicts between several local militias and the military in Myanmar.

‘Already vulnerable groups requiring humanitarian assistance including ethnic minorities and the Rohingya people will suffer most,’ she says.

Children in crossfire

Armed forces have killed more than 500 people so far since the coup in Myanmar. Rights organization Save the Children states that at least 43 children have been killed by armed forces.

The youngest recorded victim is a six-year-old girl who was shot by police when she ran towards her father.

The killing happened during a search where police inspected houses for weapons in Mandalay, the victim’s older sister May Thu Sumaya told the BBC.

‘They kicked the door to open it. When the door was open, they asked my father whether there were any other people in the house,’ she said.

When the father said no, they accused him of lying and searched the house. The girl then ran to her father to sit on his lap and got shot by the police, Ms Sumaya said.

‘I can’t Father, it’s too painful,’ the father described his daughter’s last words.

As the Myanmar authorities continues their crackdown on civilians, there is no guarantee that children will be spared during the unrest.

‘Children have witnessed violence and horror. It is clear that Myanmar is no longer a safe place for children,’ Save the Children writes.

The post Bloody streets of Myanmar first appeared on The Postcolonial.

On March 12, the European Parliament called on member states to repatriate children currently stuck in indefinite detention with their European mothers in the prison camps of Northeastern Syria.  

The women entered Syria to join ISIS and either brought their children with them or conceived them while in Syria. For that reason the European Parliament’s call largely fell on deaf ears since the children from a legal standpoint cannot be repatriated without their mothers. This seals the children’s fate as most European governments have refused to bring their mothers home.

‘We will not help parents that have turned their backs on Denmark,’ Mette Frederiksen, the Danish Prime Minister, has repeatedly stated.

Her sentiment is shared by other Europeans and their governments, as throughout the EU the detained mothers are labeled as terrorists and traitors.

However, beside a moral-political position of not wanting to repatriate European citizens that joined ISIS, the anti-repatriation camp is increasingly coming under fire as human rights groups and intelligence services, who are voicing concerns that the costs of doing nothing will increasingly outweigh the cost of repatriation.

Threats to Europe

‘We cannot bring back terrorists,’ said Rasmus Stoklund, spokesperson for the Danish government, referring to the Danish women who travelled to Syria and joined ISIS.

He further argued that while their children might not constitute a threat to Danish national security, the women eventually will.

It is therefore not only immoral to repatriate them, it is also dangerous, he said.

However, the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) has warned against the dangers posed by leaving the children and their mothers in the camps in Syria.

According to the intelligence service, leaving them can lead to radicalization of the children and further radicalization of the mothers. In time, this can end with ISIS using the children to conduct terror attacks in their European country of origin.

Therefore, the assessment from PET is the opposite of Rasmus Stoklund’s view: The children are the threat, and the threat draws closer with every passing day the children are left to stay in the camps.

However, this warning was dismissed by Danish Minister for Justice Nick Hækkerup, who stated that the intelligence service had merely provided an evaluation, and that it did not fit with the policy of the Danish government.

Another way

Pressured by the threats posed, the Finnish government has chosen a different approach. The Finnish foreign ministry has arranged for about half of the Finnish women and their children to be repatriated while plans are in the making for the remaining ones to be repatriated as well.

The emissary from the Finnish foreign ministry who has been charged with handling the repatriation recognizes the threat that the repatriated might pose to Finnish society once they are back in Finland.

‘I am not saying that there is no risk involved [with repatriation]. It is just that the threat posed by bringing them home is less than doing nothing,’ says Jussi Tanner, Finnish diplomat who will negotiate the homecoming of children located in the Syrian camps.

A European Guantanamo

The British human rights organisation Rights and Security International released an updated report in February about the intolerable conditions that the detainees in the Syrian camps are exposed to. In the report the organisation accuses European countries of having created a Guantanamo of their own by allowing their citizens to remain there.

Children shot by guards. Mothers and their children locked away in solitary confinement for months. Children burned alive in tents.

These are some of the horrific incidents that have occurred in the al-Hol and Roj camps where most of the European mothers and their children are located.

On top of this, the detained are facing malnutrition, kidnappings, dehydration, child labour, lack of medical care and psychological distress, all of these adding to make life for the detained a living hell and creating the perfect conditions for radicalisation.

The American detention camp in Guantanamo was established after the terror attacks on 9/11 and the conditions there have been criticised for breaching the human rights of the detainees due to the indefinite detention without trial and the torture that they have been subjected to.

The post Pressure mounts on Europe’s Guantanamo first appeared on The Postcolonial.