Denmark’s parliamentary Social Committee has agreed that the government should investigate removing statutes of limitations in several cases where children were subjected to failures by authorities, DR reported. If the proposal is passed, it could affect thousands of adoptees.
Time limits currently prevent people who suffered authority failures as children from bringing compensation claims.
Murugasan Nielsen and David Kildendal welcomed the move. Both were adopted from India to Denmark in 1979 via an Indian children’s home without their biological parents knowing. “This is positive news, because this case needs to be illuminated,” Murugasan Nielsen said.
His own case was rejected earlier this year. “They didn’t even want to take the case up, because they said: It is clearly time-barred, and it doesn’t even make sense for us to read the charge sheet,” he said. He called the limitation period grotesque.
“One thing is that people did something wrong at the time. But that you can keep saying that what’s done is done and now it’s too late is simply grotesque. That is not the Denmark I know, anyway,” he said.
David Kildendal said the committee’s move was “quite clearly a step in the right direction”. “That said, so far there is agreement to look at the possibility. So there is a long way from looking at the possibility to getting it passed into law,” he added.
He said he did not think there was anything to celebrate yet. “There are many times where we have hoped for a lot of things, and then they didn’t amount to anything. So I would like to see it passed into law before I can be a bit happier,” he said.
Murugasan Nielsen said he is not seeking financial compensation but recognition that he experienced authority failures. He and a lawyer have sued the state. “There is no claim for money or any compensation in that sense. It is more an apology and at least a recognition that they have done something wrong,” he said.
David Kildendal said he dreams of a legal assessment of his case and has fought for it for many years. “In both my and other cases I know of, we have been able to prove that something happened that absolutely was not by the book. But we keep hitting a wall,” he said.
All adoption from abroad to Denmark has been stopped indefinitely after harsh criticism of Denmark’s only adoption bureau, DIA, which is now closed. An impartial investigation is ongoing. Both men appeared in the 2024 DR documentary “Det store adoptionstyveri”.
Earlier coverage