Church of Scotland says sorry over child migrants

The Church of Scotland has said sorry for its role in sending children to Australia in the 1950s and 60s.

The church said the aim was "to give children a better opportunity for the future".

But it now admits the programme was "ill-conceived" and caused trauma and suffering to many families.

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry heard that the first migration ship linked to the church set sail in December 1950, with 22 boys aged under 14 on board.

The scheme continued until 1963.

Over this period, thousands of young British children were deported, with the help of charities and organisations across the UK.

The children often came from deprived backgrounds and were already in some form of care.

Many of the parents gave up their children because of poverty or social stigma of being a single mother.

Vivienne Dickson, chief executive of the religious organisation's Crossreach, told the inquiry that the Church of Scotland was pressured to get more child migrants sent to Australia to keep up with Catholics and other faiths.

She said the "starting point" was to gain consent from each boy, although the known age range of the children involved started at seven.

"I would not believe a child of seven could give that informed consent," she said.

The inquiry heard that the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland gave its backing to the scheme at its 1951 meeting.

Inquiry chairwoman Lady Smith said this would have "put quite some pressure" on its members to ratify - as it had already begun the year before.

All of those who left for Australia with the church ended up at Dhurringile in Victoria, which became a training farm for the youngsters.

In a statement to coincide with the inquiry, the Reverend Thom Riddell, convener of the Church of Scotland's Social Care Council, said: "We recognise the hurt caused and are deeply and profoundly sorry for the actions which were taken and for the impact that those actions had on the lives of those affected.

"We fully accept that the programme which we embarked on was ill-conceived and understand that children and their families experienced trauma and suffering as a result.

"We believe that it is right and proper that we are held to account for this at The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry today."

Rev Riddell said that although the aim was to give the children a better future, the church now acknowledged that this was not what happened.

He said that in reality children were sent into an unfamiliar and often harsh and abusive environment.

"We unreservedly apologise to every migrated child who suffered as a result of our actions," he said.