Will Britain’s beaten, betrayed migrant children find justice at last?

Thousands forcibly sent to the Commonwealth from 1945-70 still await compensation – and for many time is running out

They were sent abroad, often without their parents’ consent. Large numbers were sexually and physically abused, while hunger and neglect were familiar enemies. Their education tended to be poor and they were often forced to perform exhausting manual work.

Between the end of the second world war and 1970, successive UK governments allowed thousands of children, almost exclusively from deprived backgrounds, to be removed from their families, foster carers and care homes to be sent to institutions or families in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Southern Rhodesia, ostensibly in the belief that they would enjoy a better life. Some 4,000 were sent to Australia, a mass emigration captured in the 2010 film Oranges and Sunshine, which starred Emily Watson as Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham who uncovered the scandal.

Continue reading...