This week the Prime Minister apologised on behalf of the whole country for one of the darkest events in our recent history.

Between the 1920s and the 1960s as many as 150,000 young children were shipped away from their homes to Commonwealth countries like New Zealand, Australia or Canada.  Successive governments oversaw the Child Migrants Programme.  It is difficult to imagine the misery they caused for some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

Children as young as three were forcibly transferred abroad to the under-populated Commonwealth.  Theoretically these children were orphans moving to a better life, but in many cases they were children of single mothers who had been forced to give them up for adoption.  These children were often told their parents were dead and even given new names and birthdays so they could never trace their roots back home.

On arrival it was not unusual for siblings to be split up, as the children were delivered to foster homes, state-run orphanages and religious institutions. Others were educated only for farm work and there are far too many shocking stories of the children becoming slave labour to the people who were supposed to be caring for them, as well as appalling incidences of physical and sexual abuse.  Perhaps most shockingly of all, the Programme wasn’t stopped until 1967.

I was completely taken aback by these stories and have worked to ensure that the victims of this national outrage were properly supported both financially and emotionally. Whilst no one in government today was in any way involved in the scandal, I know it will mean so much to those who had their childhood stolen that their story is now being told and that they have received an apology on behalf of the whole country. But an apology will never put right the ordeal these innocent young lives went through. 

Sixty survivors were flown to London so they could listen to the Prime Minister’s statement in person.  £6m is being invested in a Family Restoration Fund to help survivors trace lost relatives and reunite families separated for decades. But how can you ever adequately compensate those who have been treated so appallingly?

Parmjit Dhanda MP
Member of Parliament for Gloucester