Child Migrants
Receive Gordon Brown Apology
British
Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has apologised to all former child
migrants who were sent out to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and
other colonial countries on the promise that they would find
good and loving homes, only to be cruelly treated in
institutions and used as slave labour.
In his apology, Mr. Brown noted that many children were sent
away without the knowledge or consent of their parents and were
robbed of their childhoods.
He noted that records were falsified and brothers and sisters
separated in a deliberate attempt to keep families from finding
each other.
On Wednesday, Mr. Brown made an unreserved apology in the House
of Commons.
About one hundred and thirty thousand children were sent
overseas in a policy supported by successive governments which
lasted from the 1920's and only ended in 1967.
About sixty former child migrants witnessed the apology.
Last year, Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd issued an
apology for his country’s role in the child migrant programme.
FSN/Qasim/Yinka
