Professor Gordon Lynch, an expert on child migration schemes, has commented on the Australian national apology for child sexual abuse by saying: ‘It raises questions about redress for British child migrants.
‘After the Australian Government made a formal apology earlier today to those sexually abused as children (https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/oct/22/why-was-their-trust-betrayed-australia-apologises-to-child-sex-abuse-victims), further questions have arisen about the UK Government’s response to the abuse of British children sent to Australia through post-war child migration programmes.
‘I was one of the lead expert witnesses for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse’s investigation into the abuse of British child migrants (https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/4265/view/child-migration-programmes-investigation-report-march-2018.pdf ), and provided core evidence that underpinned the Inquiry’s recommendation that the UK Government should urgently establish a redress scheme for all surviving British child migrants given its failure to protect their safety overseas.
‘On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, this morning, former British child migrant David Hill questioned why the UK Government has still not implemented this recommendation, whilst the Australian Government appears to be making more progress in providing redress to victims of abuse.
‘It is very worrying that no announcement has still been made about the UK Government’s redress scheme for British child migrants. The Child Migrants Trust report that twenty former British child migrants have already died since the IICSA report was published, and for many former child migrants who already understandably feel badly let down by our country, this delay is yet another indignity.
‘When concerns about this delay were raised in a debate in the House of Commons in July (https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2018-07-03/debates/725FD0D6-F53C-4423-ACEF-49DB20851DAA/ChildMigrationProgrammes(ChildAbuse) ), the Government indicated that this was caused in part by issues of what precedence such redress payments might make.
‘In my view, though, the Government’s case on this is far from clear. What we established through the IICSA investigation was that very clear recommendations had been made at the time about the standards of care to which British child migrants were sent.
‘The UK Government not only failed to ensure these were met, but knew at the time that they were failing to do this. It still allowed child migration to continue, despite this, in part because of concerns about the strength of support for it by the Australian Government and leading British churches and charities.’
Professor Lynch is continuing to work to raise public awareness of the history of the British child migration programmes and is collaborating with the production company 7digital on a national tour of the Ballads of Child Migration, starting 12th November (https://www.facebook.com/balladsofchildmigration/ ), which uses songs, film and interviews to bring alive the experiences of the children sent overseas through these schemes.
Gordon Lynch, Michael Ramsey Professor of Modern Theology in the School of European Culture and Languages at Kent, was an advisor to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), and co-authored a report into child sexual abuse in child migration schemes for the Inquiry. He is a member of the School of European Culture and Languages.
The University’s Press Office provides the media with expert comments in response to topical news events. Colleagues who would like to learn more about how to contribute their expertise or how the service works should contact the Press Office on 3985 or pressoffice@kent.ac.uk