COPENHAGEN, Denmark

The governments of Denmark and Greenland agreed to completely stop the use of controversial psychological tests of Greenlandic parents, state news media outlet. DR. reported Friday.

The tests are used by municipalities in Denmark in all cases of child placement. But it is now being halted in cases where the parents have a Greenlandic background.

“It is my hope that the solution will give Greenlanders in Denmark peace and security back,” Minister of Social Affairs and Housing Sophie Haestrop Anderson said in a statement. She added that there are currently about 460 children with a Greenlandic background who are placed outside the home.

The Greenlandic government has repeatedly expressed reservations about the psychological tests not being suitable for testing Greenlanders because they are not adapted to Greenlandic culture, and thus they may have given a wrong picture of the parents' ability to take care of their children.

Greenlandic parents have been assessed based on tests on facial expressions and figures, which have been developed for Western cultures, but which are criticized for not taking Greenlandic culture into account.

The test of the parents' ability to be parents has been a hot potato in the relationship between Denmark and Greenland.

In December, Greenland's head of government, Mute Egede, approached his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, to have the use of the tests stopped. He said the relationship between Denmark and Greenland is "at freezing point."

In addition to stopping the tests, the government is also setting up a special unit with knowledge of Greenlandic language and culture to help the municipalities in children's cases.

The special unit will also look at the intensive placements of children where the psychological tests have been used in treatment.

If the unit assesses that the tests have led to an incorrect overall assessment of the parents' abilities, they will contact the municipality to get them to take up the case.