By Edward Trotter-
An Indepenent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has said that the government should pay all 2,000 former migrants from England and Wales forced abroad as children.
The inquiry calls for the compensation to be made to all those still alive within 12 months. Many of the victims suffered abuse when sent to Australia and parts of the British Empire from 1945-1970 by charities and the Catholic church
The Australian and UK governments apologised in 2009 and 2010.
About 4,000 children were sent to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, between 1945 and 1970.
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The inquiry heard from various former migrants who claimed they and others suffered sexual and physical abuse at the hands of those running the schools and orphanages they were sent to.
Norman Johnson, a former child migrant, said the inquiry had “pointed the finger” at the British government.
Mr Johnson, who was deported from Aberdeen at the age of seven, said that former migrants now needed to speak to Prime Minister Theresa May.
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“We want to die knowing that justice has been served,” he added.
The inquiry’s report said all former child migrants should receive compensation – whether or not they were sexually abused – because all had been put at risk of sexual abuse.
Inquiry chairwoman Professor Alexis Jay said: “Child migration was a deeply flawed government policy that was badly implemented by numerous organisations which sent children as young as five years old abroad.
“The policy was allowed to continue despite evidence over many years showing that children were suffering.”
The inquiry said the government was “primarily responsible” for the scheme managed by the Catholic church and charities, including Barnardo’s and The Fairbridge Society, which is now part of the Prince’s Trust.
The report also said the government failed to ensure children were protected and failed to respond to reports of abuse.
The inquiry also states that the British Government did not want to jeopardise its relationship with the Australian government. The government not want to upset Barnardo’s or the Fairbridge Society.
Many of the organisations “enjoyed patronage from persons of influence and position”
The avoidance of “embarrassment and reputational risk was more important” than care of the children.
The report adds that successive governments after 1970 failed to accept full responsibility
Other institutions involved in the scheme which have failed to apologise should so do so “as soon as possible”.
The investigation into child migration is one of the first of dozens of planned inquiries carried out by IICSA since it was set up in 2014 to “expose” past failures and “learn the lessons”.
It was conceived after the 2011 death of BBC presenter Jimmy Savile, when hundreds of people came forward to say he had abused them as children, with the spotlight often falling on the institutions which failed to protect them.
A spokesman for the Department for Health and Social Care said the inquiry’s report would be “carefully considered” and would be responded to “in due course”.
He said “successive governments” have accepted the “misguided and deeply flawed” policy was “wrong” and more than £9m has been made available to former child migrants to help them be reunited with their families.
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