PM apologises to child migrants

Gordon Brown has said sorry to the Cornish child migrants who were among thousands sent to Australia. He also offered them £6 million remuneration.

Rex Wade, of St. Columb, is one of thousands of child migrants who has received an apology from the Prime Minister.  Many suffered years of abuse.

At the age of 11 he was sent from his home in Camborne to start a new life in Tasmania.

Government-approved schemes between 1920 and 1960 saw hundreds of thousands of children like Rex separated from their families and sent to homes abroad. 

Over 130,000 children aged between three and 14 were shipped out to former colonies under the Child Migration Programme. More than  7,000 of them were from Cornwall.

'Slave labour'

The children, orphans or from poor families, were told they were heading for a "better life" in places like Australia and Canada. Many were actually destined for farm work, isolation, and physical and sexual abuse.

Cornwall continued to send children out after the practice in the rest of the country had stopped.

Rex Wade has paperwork to show he was sent out with his brother in 1970 when he was just 11.

He remembers the home he was sent to. "They were horrible. There will be other kids out there who know, from other homes, they were used as slave labour," he said. "And there was no love, no kindness.

Stolen

"I spent all those years out there and my life was stolen. They were all wrong, they let it go on." 

Sixty survivors came to London to listen to the statement in person. Gordon Brown follows the lead of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who said sorry last year to the 7,000 migrants still living in Australia .

In a statement to the House of Commons he said: "It was a deportation of innocent young lives. Many of these young children endured the harshest of conditions...To each and every one I say, we are sorry."

Australian MP Steve Irons, who played a part in lobbying for the 2009 apology, welcomed the UK move.

He said: "The abuse suffered will never be forgotten by the individuals concerned. However it is an important part of the healing process for victims to finally hear that government and society believes them and is sorry."

Brown's apology