Copenhagen: 90% of children removed from home are immigrants

Most of the children in Copenhagen who are forcibly removed from their home come from immigrant families, according to number for Copenhagen's youth department.

Jette Bergenholz Bautrup, head of the department, says that up to 90% of the children who have been removed from their homes are children of a different ethnic background.

The reasons for the removals are often mental illness, traumas and other social problems with the parents, which means they can't take care of their children.

Jette Bergenholz Bautrup says that there are parents who think they can hit their children, or discipline them in a tough way.

Mikkel Warming, in charge of social affairs at Copenhagen municipality, explains the high number of cases of immigrant children, by saying that non-Danish families are poorer than Danish families. This was shown by a recent municipal poverty study.

He says poverty can be part of the explanation. They also see that non-Danish children comit more crimes, fare poorer in school etc, so there are sadly also problems in other areas.

He stresses that forcible removal is always that last solution, and is used when all other possibilities are exhausted. Part of the cases can be eliminated if there were more resources for prevention.

He says it will be better if they expand the prevention efforts in kindergartens, schools, clubs and families, but as far as social issues are concerned they are hampered by a very tight budget.

Peter Albæk, president of the Børns Vilkår association (Children's welfare), doesn't doubt that forcibly removing a child from home is used only as a last resort. He also think that the municipality should intervene before the problems get so big that children need to be removed from home.

Copenhagen municipality removed 107 children from their homes in 2007.

Source: Politiken (Danish)

See also: Denmark: Problem finding foster families