Prime Minister Gordon Brown Apologizes For the UK History of Child Migration

Apparently today, Prime Minister Gordon Brown is set to apologize for the UK's role in sending tens of thousands of children to former colonies where they suffered very terrible abuse. The UK is the only country that has a sustained history of child migration.

Mr Gordon Brown will express the government's regrets over the child migration program in a statement to the House of Commons. Under this scheme, which ran all the way from the 1920's to the 1960's, an estimated 150,00 kids were shipped off to Commonwealth countries such as Australia and Canada. The kids that were shipped off were between the ages of three to 14.

However, after arriving overseas, most of these kids ended up being abused in their new foster homes, state run orphanages, and religious institutions. Children were often told their parents were dead, and the parents were given very little information about their offspring.

Kids that survived the events told how, upon arrival in the new country, they would be separated from their brothers and sisters and subjected to brutal physical abuse. They also told stories of how many of the young girls would be sexually abused by their new foster parents. The Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, has also apologized for his country's part in this very tragic event.

Although this government program was started in the 1920's, the UK had been practicing child migration for centuries. Records show that, as early as 1618, 100 children were sent from London to Richmond, Virginia. However, very little is known of what happened to these kids after they were shipped overseas.