Introduction

1. "It was barbaric; it was dreadful. We look back on it in our organisation with shock and horror."[1] This was the comment on the child migration programmes made by the Chief Executive of Barnardo's when he, along with representatives of other sending agencies, gave evidence to us on 11 June 1998. Child migration was a feature of British social policy for many years. Legislation allowed children in the care of voluntary organisations to be transported to Commonwealth countries. In total it is estimated that some 150,000 children were dispatched over a period of 350 years—the earliest recorded child migrants left Britain for the Virginia Colony in 1618, and the process did not finally end until the late 1960s.[2] Exact statistics are difficult to come by. Today many former child migrants continue to face serious difficulties in establishing their actual identities and contacting members of their natural families who are still alive. The absence of a medical history is also a significant problem for some. In many cases child migrants suffered emotional and physical hardship and abuse, of a kind which has had damaging consequences for their health and well-being for the remainder of their lives.

2. Responsibility within the British Government for matters relating to the welfare of former British child migrants now rests with the Department of Health (DoH). This is therefore an issue which falls within the Health Committee's order of reference. At our first meeting in the present Parliament, in July 1997, we decided to inquire into aspects of child migration, a subject which until recent years has received shamefully little attention. One explanation for this seeming disregard is that until the advent of the Child Migrants' Trust in 1987, individual former child migrants had no organisation to represent their interests or co-ordinate their activities. They were, and are, widely dispersed across Australia and other Commonwealth countries, and often lack any ready means of gaining access to opinion-formers or to the media. Mr Tom Luce, Division Head of the Social Care Group at the DoH, commented that:

"We have a very strong impression that before the middle to late 1980s there were

very few inquiries, complaints, applications for records".[3]

The agencies involved in child migration appear at this time to have been less than co-operative in dealing with requests for information. Former child migrants were a group whose fate had largely been forgotten.

3. By calling our inquiry "the welfare of former British child migrants", we took a conscious decision to concentrate our attention on the future: what might now be done, in practical terms, to help those concerned.

4. In November 1997 we issued an invitation to submit written evidence. In response we have received over 300 memoranda, many of them hand-written. We particularly welcome the contribution from those former child migrants who related their stark, painful and often horrific experiences to us. We commend the courage and effort which providing the evidence must have required. Not all the memoranda catalogue physical, mental or sexual abuse. But most former child migrants seem to have been subjected to considerable hardship of one form or another. Themes of the evidence include hardship and abuse as a child and persisting feelings of loneliness.

5. To protect confidentiality we do not intend to publish the written evidence submitted by individual former child migrants. Many of the letters reveal terrible cases of neglect and abuse and we are sensitive to the fact that not all of those concerned would want to see their experiences broadcast widely. However, to ensure that the material is available for serious research we propose to place copies of the memoranda both in the Library of the House of Commons and in the House of Lords Record Office. A list of all those who submitted written evidence (as at 23 July 1998) can be found on pages xxxiii to xliv. When we quote from former child migrants' submissions, we have not sought to alter spelling or punctuation.

6. During the inquiry we held four public hearings at the House of Commons at which oral evidence was taken from: DoH officials, Home Children Canada, The Ellen Foundation, The Child Migrants' Trust (whose panel of witnesses included several former child migrants), Barnardo's, Catholic Child Welfare Council, The Children's Society, Fairbridge, The Family Care Society, NCH Action for Children, The Salvation Army and the Rt Hon Frank Dobson MP, Secretary of State for Health. Details of the individual witnesses who represented these various organisations can be found on page xxxii. We also undertook a nine-day visit to Auckland and Wellington in New Zealand and Melbourne, Canberra and Perth in Australia. Our principal aim in this visit was to talk to as many former child migrants as possible, both on an individual basis and in open session. This was a salutary and harrowing experience. It was, too, rewarding in that we were honoured to have met such a variety of resourceful people who, whilst often clearly affected by their childhood ordeal, were determined to strive for appropriate help and assistance, particularly with regard to tracing families. Unavoidable limitations of time and expense meant that we were not able to visit as many places where former child migrants have settled as we would have wished, and we acknowledge the disappointment felt by some individuals, particularly in Australia, that they were not able to meet us. However, many people travelled considerable distances to come to our hearings, for example from Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and New South Wales, and some of these made it clear that they also represented others who could not travel. We also received phone calls from former child migrants and other interested parties. We emphasised throughout this inquiry that we welcomed written submissions, which have all been carefully read and taken into account. The former child migrants we did meet were able to convey graphically to us the realities of their earlier experiences. We made every effort to give full opportunity for people to talk to us in depth, and saw many people individually, as well as in groups of various sizes. This has been an unusual inquiry in that very much of the evidence was taken overseas and is not therefore available verbatim for inclusion with this report. For this reason we quote rather more than usual, using our own notes taken at the time. We were very conscious that many people made a great effort to communicate to us things which were very difficult for them to describe and re-live in so doing, and we are very appreciative of this help.

7. We wish also to make reference to those former child migrants who were unaware of our inquiry or who were unable to contribute because of their current circumstances. We trust that every means possible will be used to bring any initiatives adopted by governments to improve the welfare of former child migrants to the attention of all those who might benefit.

8. As well as former child migrants, we also met with the following organisations and individuals during the visit. In New Zealand: the British Child Migrants' Society (NZ) Inc., the Hon. Nick Smith, Associate Minister of Social Welfare, the Social Services Select Committee of the New Zealand House of Representatives, and the Director and other officials of the Department of Social Welfare and officials from other interested government departments. In Melbourne: the International Association of Former Child Migrants and their Families, and the Assistant Director, Protection and Care, in the Youth and Family Services Division, Department of Human Services, Victoria. In Canberra: Mr John Forrest MP, Chair, Standing Committee on Family and Community Affairs, the Hon Phillip Ruddock MP, Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, and officials from the Minister's Department, and the Old Fairbridgians' Association. In Perth: Fairbridge Western Australia Inc, the Old Fairbridgians' Association, the Catholic Migrant Centre, the Christian Brothers, the Christian Brothers Ex-Residents' Service, the Australian Child Migrant Foundation, ex-residents of St Joseph's and Nazareth House Orphanages, the Hon Rhonda Parker, MLA, Minister of Family and Children's Services, Seniors and Women's Interests, and Mr Gary Bowler, Executive Director of Country Service Deliver. At various hearings we met ex-residents of the Christian Brothers institutions at Bindoon, Clontarf, Tardun and Castledare (Western Australia), the Presbyterian institution at Dhurringile (Victoria), and the Sisters of Mercy institution at Goodwood (South Australia).

9. We wish to place on record our gratitude for the help both we and the former child migrants we met received from British High Commission and consular staff in New Zealand and Australia. The dedication and sensitivity they displayed in preparing for the visit and during the visit were highly commendable.

2  CM 129, para 6. Back

3   Q17. Back