New Zealand to halt removal of 'at risk' children from families

FILE PHOTO: Ministers address hundreds of Maori protesters gathered to demonstrate against what protesters say is the disproportionate number of Maori children taken by social service agencies from their families, outside parliament in Wellington, New Zealand, July 30, 2019. REUTERS/Praveen Menon

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand said on Wednesday it will put a virtual halt to the practice of taking at-risk children away from their families, a care policy that has long angered its indigenous Maori community.

Children deemed to be facing harm have been moved into state care for decades despite Maori criticism that the process is racially skewed and a legacy of colonisation. A vast majority of the children taken, a process known locally as uplifting, are Maori.