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Global Eye - Season 2026 Episode 1 - The Greenlanders Fighting To Get Their Children Back
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00:00Hello and welcome to Global Eye, a programme that brings you unmissable investigations and
00:24reporting from around the world, made by teams from across the BBC's World Service.
00:29I'm Andrew Harding, the BBC's Paris correspondent. France is one of Europe's most powerful democracies,
00:36but it's now wrestling with chronic instability, a cycle of protests, collapsing governments and
00:42political deadlock. I'll be tracing the path to this crisis and assessing whether the French
00:48Republic, created to bring stability after years of upheaval, can still hold together today.
00:53Also on this week's programme, we'll take a look at how Greenlandic parents across Denmark
01:01are fighting to be reunited with children forcibly taken into care.
01:05And it's one of the world's hottest commodities, yet most of us walk past it without ever realising
01:24its true worth. We'll uncover the remarkable story behind the surprising material at the centre
01:30of a global smuggling trade.
01:38To me, the French tend to convey an oppressive sense of certainty about life, the right way
01:44to order your stake, the right way to behave in public, acquire confidence in the power of the
01:50state. But that seems to be changing.
01:52Je dissous donc, ce soir, l'Assemblée nationale.
02:10It was a seismic moment. In June 2024, President Macron abruptly dissolved the National Assembly,
02:18France's Parliament midterm, and called a snap election. Macron framed it as a necessary response
02:25to the surge of the far right, after a spectacular showing by Marine Le Pen's national rally in
02:31the European parliamentary elections. What followed was uncomfortable and unexpected, a three-way
02:37split between, on the left, the new popular front alliance, the centre ground dominated by
02:43Macron's Ensemble party, and the far-right national rally. The result, a hung parliament and a deadlock.
02:50A deadlock now testing France's 70-year-old constitutional system to the limit. This is France's fifth
02:59political regime. The chaotic Fourth Republic ran from 1946 to 58, with 16 prime ministers and 21
03:07governments, none of which lasted much longer than a year. When President Charles de Gaulle established
03:13the Fifth Republic, he significantly strengthened presidential powers, while reducing the influence
03:19of the prime minister and parliament. At the time, strong parties on the left and right usually took
03:24turns, holding a parliamentary majority. So, the system largely works. But what if that gentle pendulum
03:31swing between two mainstream parties suddenly goes haywire? The answer is gridlock.
03:41Which is what's happening now. Since President Macron called those elections in 2024, France has cycled
03:48through an astonishing clutch of prime ministers, all with one difficulty in common, getting
03:53agreement for their tax and spending plans. One after the other, they attempted to strike
03:59a budget deal, but failed and quit. In one case, after just a month in power.
04:04On this Monday morning, the conditions were no longer filled to ensure that I could exercise
04:10my prime minister's functions and allow the government to go to the National Assembly tomorrow.
04:16SĂ©bastien Lecornu was then reappointed as prime minister just four days after that resignation
04:22speech. So, what does this mean for the citizens of the EU's second largest economy?
04:30Since Macron first became president in 2017, promising to cut taxes, increase growth and
04:37reduce the role of the state, both public spending and debt have increased. France's crippling national
04:45debt is now far bigger than what European Union rules allow. The bloc's second biggest economy
04:51now rivals Greece and Italy in terms of the cash it needs to borrow every year. Inability to pass
04:58budgets or financial reforms has triggered mass demonstrations, strikes and a surge in protests.
05:06There is a pervasive sense of economic anxiety on the streets of Paris.
05:15One of the most vocal forces has been the bloc en tout or let's block everything movement which
05:20started on social media and has spread across France. Striking workers have also closed pharmacies
05:26and shuttered schools, angered by plans to raise the retirement age to 64. After eight years in office,
05:34Emmanuel Macron's position as president is coming under increasing pressure with his political rivals
05:40calling for him to go. Opinion polls suggest almost three quarters of voters think the president should
05:45step down too. Macron himself has remained typically bullish.
05:50But his time is running out, and with it, his power, his ability to influence France's
06:13future.
06:14Now, from Paris, we're taking you over 600 miles northeast to Denmark, where, following
06:21a public outcry, the government last year banned the use of parental competency tests, which
06:27contributed to hundreds of Greenlandic being taken from their families after evidence showed
06:32the tests were inappropriate for their culture.
06:35Many of these families are now fighting to get their children returned to them.
06:39Greenland is a former Danish colony, and roughly a third of Greenland's population lives on
06:45the Danish mainland.
06:46Despite an apology and a pledge by the government to review around 300 child removals, some families
06:52have been told that for them it's too late.
06:55For BBC Global Women, Sofia Betica has been to meet some of the families who are still
07:00fighting to get their children returned.
07:02â
07:27Kira's case is one of nearly 300 that the Danish government has said it wants to review.
07:47Her story sparked widespread outrage, but Zami's the third of Kira's children to be taken against
07:54her will. Tests on her parenting ability began more than a decade earlier after social services
08:00became concerned about her eldest daughter's language development. What were these parenting
08:07competency tests like? What kind of questions did they ask you? They asked the question like,
08:13who is Mother Teresa? Some of the tests I had to play with a doll and they were criticizing me for
08:22not having eyes contact. These kinds of questions are part of a far-reaching assessment designed to
08:30evaluate intellectual and personal capability to meet a child's needs. They can cover general
08:37knowledge, logic, memory and emotional understanding. Parents would normally be required to take these
08:44tests after extensive contact with social services.
08:48Kira's assessment concluded that trauma during her upbringing affects the
09:14parenting, preventing her from meeting her children's needs. She says that on multiple occasions,
09:22she was pressured by psychologists and social workers to have abortions.
09:27When I was on the test, when I was on the test, FQO test, the psychologist asked me a question.
09:36Why do you keep this baby?
09:41In my test, she said, I'm not responsible enough. I didn't take my responsibility for getting abortion.
09:51The relationship between Greenland and Denmark is steeped in centuries of colonial rule.
10:10Greenland's population is about 90% indigenous Inuit. After World War II, Denmark launched a campaign to
10:18modernise its colony, aiming to modernise its colony, aiming to bring it more in line with Danish cultural norms.
10:25They were aiming to renew housing. They were aiming to provide better health services, improve the school system and education.
10:34Many Greenlanders felt kind of overwhelmed by these policies and felt that the Danish cultural norms were dominating
10:42and that their lives were changing significantly without them participating fully in this development.
10:49When you intervene into a family and remove a child, this is always based on some ideas about cultural norms.
10:59For years, campaigners have raised concerns about the way children are taken from Inuit, Greenlandic parents in Denmark.
11:11They say this is the latest in a long line of Danish government policies that reflect colonial racism towards the indigenous population.
11:22In 1951, Denmark removed 22 Inuit children from Greenland in the Little Danes experiment, aiming to raise them as Danish citizens.
11:33And in 2025, the Danish government apologised for a forced contraception scandal that spanned decades.
11:43And that's why I'm giving my apologies today, not only about the early days. It's also about our modern times and our future.
11:54Tina co-founded SILA 360, an NGO challenging the system.
11:59The way these tests are used is a scandal and it's shocking and it's dehumanising.
12:07The Danish authorities think that the Greenlandic people are uncivilised, they are less smart and actually that they are just less privileged.
12:20Tina co-founder says,
12:40While Kyra waits, hoping for answers, not every case is under review.
12:59Some have been permanently closed.
13:03Back in 2010, Johanne was assessed in a parenting competency test.
13:09She did not have an interpreter, even though Danish is her second language.
13:15The assessment found her to have mental retardation.
13:19But the local council told us she did not need an interpreter,
13:23and that her children faced physical and psychological neglect
13:27because of Johanne's alleged mental health issues, including periods of depression and anxiety.
13:35Her two children were taken from her.
13:38Then, nine years later, Johanne became pregnant again.
13:44We have another picture when he was one day old.
13:48Wow. Is that you?
13:50Yep. That is me.
13:52That is the father.
13:54And son.
13:54And son.
13:55That happiness was short-lived.
14:10Eight months into her pregnancy, Johanne learned that she and her husband would face the parenting competency tests once again.
14:18The assessment described Johanne as childish and narcissistic.
14:24Ulrich, it said, was self-centered and lacking empathy.
14:29The conclusion, they could not meet the needs of their child.
14:33They felt the outcome was predetermined.
14:45One of the tests Johanne and Ulrich and many of the families we spoke to had to take is the Rorschach test.
14:54Developed in the 1920s, it analyzes personality traits based on how people interpret abstract ink blots.
15:24In traditional Greenlandic culture, where many people hunt for their livelihood, seeing blood from a young age is normal.
15:33But in Denmark, the same response in a psychological test could be seen as a cause for concern.
15:40But child removals don't just happen because of these tests.
15:44In Denmark, they are part of a much wider process, one that disproportionately affects Greenlandic people.
15:51There are an estimated 460 Greenlandic children living outside parental care in Denmark.
15:59Proportionally, Greenlandic parents are thought to be almost six times more likely to have their children taken into care than the general population.
16:08I think the whole assessment is problematic.
16:12We have gone through so many cases, it's the same.
16:15Same assumptions about alcoholism, about them being neglected as children.
16:22They have too many prejudices against the Greenlandic people.
16:26They would rather see that the children are brought up in another Danish home.
16:32Johanne and Ulrich were told that their child would be removed from their care and permanently adopted.
16:38Mine is very fast.
17:08We should see more.
17:22In 2020, their son was adopted.
17:25Because of that, their case was closed and will not be reviewed by the government.
17:30They haven't seen him since.
17:34But we've found that more than six months into the government review,
17:38the pace is slow.
17:39It's been six months since a government review began.
17:43And so far, only 10 cases where a parenting competency test was used have been reviewed.
17:51Why is progress so slow?
17:54Well, I know that it sounds slow, but I think that it is also we are getting started.
18:00And I suspect that in the next coming months, they will review even more cases.
18:06Out of those 10 cases, only one was found to contain mistakes.
18:11As of today, the government review has not led to a single Greenlandic child being returned to their family.
18:17I can't recognise those numbers, I must say.
18:22Those numbers come from the units that you've set up to review the cases.
18:27So they come from a government agency that you're in charge of.
18:30Yeah.
18:31We want to make sure that we look into every placement where this test was used to place a child with Greenlandic background.
18:39It is a work in progress, yes.
18:45The local council involved in Johanne and Ulrich's case told us that the child welfare assessment
18:52indicated significant concern regarding the parents' overall parenting abilities, lifestyle and functional level in daily life.
19:01In Kyra's case, the local council told us they can't comment on individual families, but said generally employees would never pressure parents to have an abortion, but only offer advice and guidance.
19:16They added that a decision to place a child in care happens when there is serious concern about the child's health, development and wellbeing.
19:26In November, just after Zami's first birthday, Kyra was told by the authorities that, at least for now, her daughter will remain in foster care.
19:39There's no way to win. I was never Danish enough. I was never good enough.
19:48Johanne and Ulrich's future is also unclear. Their lawyer wants to bring their case to the European Court of Human Rights.
19:56When their son was just a few days old, they baptized him, hoping that one day he would find them.
20:13We did it on purpose. We needed to make a paper trail, so he could find back to us.
20:20We did it on purpose. We did it on purpose. We needed to make a paper trail, so he could find them.
20:35Here's some more great content from the BBC World Service this week.
20:47We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.
20:56And it has to be judicious because that's what we're all about.
21:00After U.S. special forces captured the president of Venezuela during airstrikes on its capital Caracas,
21:07AmeriCast has done a deep dive into how the U.S. military were able to storm President Maduro's home and what kind of intelligence the CIA had.
21:16And as the people of Venezuela react to the capture of their president, the Global Story podcast asked what's next for the country.
21:24You can listen to AmeriCast and the Global Story on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
21:34Now to a commodity that's being smuggled into nearly every country in the world.
21:40Gangs have become involved in the illicit trade, while its illegal mining and extraction is having a devastating impact on the environment and local communities.
21:50It's now in short supply, and it's something that may really surprise you.
21:56Here's more from the World Service's global journalism team.
22:01Sand. It's being smuggled on a global scale.
22:06There are many billions of dollars worth of sand being dug up and sold illegally every year.
22:12It's cheap and easy to extract.
22:14It is a low-risk, high-reward business.
22:18So why is sand in such high demand?
22:24The modern world is made of it.
22:28Sand is in concrete, asphalt, glass and silicon.
22:32It even turns up in places you wouldn't expect.
22:35We use sand in cosmetics, in certain kinds of wine.
22:40We use sand in paint.
22:42We use sand to make elastics.
22:45Around 50 billion tons of sand and gravel are used every year.
22:49That's enough to cover the whole of Argentina in a layer one centimetre thick.
22:5590% of all the sand mined goes into the construction industry.
23:02China and India are the biggest consumers.
23:05All over the developing world, hundreds of millions of people are moving from the countryside into cities every year.
23:15So worldwide, we are building the equivalent of nine New York cities every single year.
23:21And not all of the world's sand can be used for construction.
23:30Desert sands, eroded by wind, are round.
23:33The best sand for concrete has jagged edges and comes from rivers.
23:37Sand is taken from riverbeds by hand or by dredgers and more is being extracted than can naturally be replenished.
23:53Globally, the sand market is worth around 165 billion dollars.
23:57But it's nearly impossible to know how much of that has been sourced illegally.
24:02The estimates range anywhere, you know, up into the tens of billions of dollars.
24:07We know for sure that there's illegal sand mining in dozens and dozens of countries.
24:11It happens in Western Europe and North America on a relatively small scale.
24:16And it happens in the developing world on like a millions of tonnes scale.
24:21Researchers estimate that in these countries, more than 50% of sand mining is illegal.
24:26But no organisation tracks sand, so there isn't international data.
24:31In the Gambia, a one-off Interpol operation targeting illegal activity found unprecedented levels of illicit sand mining.
24:40This is all dredged sand from the seaside, since mountains of sand.
24:46Illegal mining means sand is removed without proper authorisation or from prohibited areas.
24:52And once it's mixed with legal sand, it's almost impossible to tell the difference.
24:58It can be transported to a construction site and no one knows where it came from and nobody asks questions.
25:04It can be moved on a container ship and nobody knows where the source of it is.
25:09Ease of extraction, high demand for concrete and the fact that sand is legal to buy and sell mean that illegal mining continues with little opposition.
25:20And it's often at the local level where exploitation starts and where so-called sand mafias operate.
25:26It can be either a small villager who's taking sand from the beach to build his own house,
25:32right up to the point where people who have taken sand and realised how lucrative it is have risen and formed networks and gangs.
25:41This is usually possible through bribery or intimidation.
25:45There is just major corruption of local and regional governments in sand mining because there's very little capacity to enforce prohibitions.
26:00Criminal activity, including sand mafias, are making headlines as illegal mining turns violent.
26:08Hundreds of people have been murdered over sand just in the last few years.
26:13And that's been, I mean, there's documented cases of this happening in Mexico, in Ghana, in Indonesia, in many, many countries around the world, and especially in India.
26:25I was attacked in 2004 by sand miners and that's when it became more serious and more intense for me.
26:33Since then, Sumaira has been campaigning against illegal sand mining and highlighting the effect it's having in India and around the world.
26:40Well, if your houses are washed away, it impacts you immediately, even without a catastrophe like a flood, you can see the effects because you can see the erosion on a daily basis.
26:54Overmining of rivers and beaches means there's a greater risk of landslides and flooding, while dredging has significant consequences for fragile ecosystems.
27:02When you do that, when you suck up the bottom of a river, obviously, whatever was living down there, whatever kind of fish and plant life were living on that riverbed, you just annihilated their habitat, wiped it out.
27:17New technologies could help.
27:20More concrete than ever is being recycled and sand can be created artificially by crushing rocks.
27:25But manufacturing is expensive, and both are energy-intensive.
27:31And as long as extracting sand remains cheap and plentiful, cracking down on sand smuggling won't be easy.
27:38You need to have communities much more involved in monitoring illegal sand mining.
27:45You've got to be addressing the corruption.
27:48You need to raise awareness.
27:49And because nobody is paying adequate attention to it, it goes on, and the devastation continues.
28:01Thank you for joining me here in Paris.
28:04We want your feedback on Global Eye, so let us know what you think on social media using the hashtag BBCGlobalEye.
28:11We'll be back next week.
28:13Goodbye.
28:19We'll be back next week.
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