Gordon Brown apologises to child migrants sent abroad

[dipsydoodle]

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has apologised for the UK's role in sending more than 130,000 children to former colonies where many suffered abuse.

He expressed regret for the "misguided" Child Migrant Programme, telling the Commons he was "truly sorry" for the "shameful episode of history".

The scheme sent poor children for a "better life" to countries like Canada and Australia from the 1920s to 1960s.

But many were abused and ended up in institutions or as labourers on farms.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8531664.stm

Our shameful past. :(

edit : it's never too late to say sorry.

[Hopeless Romantic]

1. Better late than never I suppose, now he must pay them all compensation and

taxes must be raised to pay for it.

I suggest that he introduces a new "first born levy" which must be paid by all new parents on the birth of their first child.

2 or 3 thousand per baby should do, for starters anyway.

Of course, the poor and people receiving benefits will be exempt.

[alp227]

2. What kind of BS is this, sending poor kids out of the country instead of providing welfare

I'm reading this article now and am really disgusted, but I credit PM Brown for apologizing and offering reparations.

[polly7]

3. They took children out of 'workhouses' where they and their

unwed mothers were staying, or just scooped them up off the street and sent them by the tens of thousands to the colonies. I've worked in nursing homes where some of the older men and women had no idea where their families were, what year or day they were born ... nothing but what the organizations that brought them here told them, that they were being sent to families who would take care of them. Well sure, but in a lot of cases they treated them like cattle. Young boys and girls worked in the fields, were never enrolled in school and ended up later on in life completely alone and abandoned. I would be surprised if the number he gave was right, as there were over 100,000 sent to Canada alone. We have a group trying to link them up through census indexes and ships records to their families in Britain. A lot of the WW1 soldiers here enlisted just to get home to try to find their families. Many died and never did. It really is a sad story for a lot of them. If you ever get the chance to see a show called 'Ancestors "In the Attic' it documents many of their children trying to find their roots overseas.

[canetoad]

4. I was under the impression

that this apology is aimed at a much later group of child migrants than those who were old enough to fight in WWI; the children who, post WWII were rounded up and shipped to Australia and Canada.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8360150.stm - you will find some background here. Also, if you ever come across a mini-series called 'The Leaving of Liverpool', grab a chance to watch it.