COPENHAGEN, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- Lawmakers in the Danish parliament have reached a broad cross-party consensus to provide 80 million Danish krones (approx. 12 million U.S. dollars) worth of assistance to children in Greenland who have been subject to abuse.
The money will be allocated over the next four years.
"I am incredibly pleased with the agreement. Now, the work started between the Danish and Greenland governments is being followed up," said Astrid Krag, minister of social affairs and the interior, following the agreement on Wednesday evening.
With a total population of only 57,000, of whom 90 percent are ethnic Greenlanders (Inuit), Greenland -- a vast, largely empty landmass which is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark -- has child sexual abuse problems that primarily stem from alcohol abuse.
According to figures from the National Institute of Public Health released in May 2019, every fifth child has been sexually abused and approximately every third child born in Greenland since the 1990s has had a childhood with alcoholic parents and domestic violence.
Since coming to office in June, the Social Democrat-led Danish government has said that helping children in Greenland was a priority. This was reinforced in August, when Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, on a visit to Greenland, promised that she would personally fight the numerous child sexual assault cases that plague the island.
The money for the sexually abused children in Greenland comes from a social reserve of 849 million Danish krones that must be allocated upon agreement by parliament to social health initiatives for the socially disadvantaged. (1 Danish krone = 0.15 U.S. dollar)
