Greenlanders are not 'experimental subjects', says minister as she decries US doctor's visit [View all]
Source: The Guardian
Greenlanders are not experimental subjects, says minister as she decries US doctors visit
Health minister in Nuuk condemns doctors presence in US delegation as deeply problematic
Miranda Bryant Nordic correspondent
Mon 18 May 2026 13.06 EDT
Last modified on Mon 18 May 2026 13.41 EDT
Greenlands government has criticised the arrival of a US doctor in Nuuk alongside Donald Trumps special envoy, Jeff Landry, saying that Greenlanders are not experimental subjects.
Joseph Griffin said he had joined the delegation as a volunteer to assess the medical needs of the Arctic island, which the US president has repeatedly threatened to invade.
Greenlands health minister, Anna Wangenheim, immediately condemned his presence, describing it as deeply problematic.
The health sector in Greenland has historically been the subject of geopolitical interest, she said in a statement hinting at deep sensitivities in the now largely autonomous territory, which as a Danish colony experienced repeated health-related abuses of Indigenous Greenlandic people.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/18/greenland-us-doctor-visit-trump-envoy-deeply-problematic