Child migrants: UK Government needs to follow Australian government lead and offer apology at home as well as abroad says care leavers charity.

CLA Press Release: 15 November 2009

Child migrants: UK Government needs to follow Australian government lead and offer apology at home as well as abroad says care leavers charity.

The proposed government apology to child migrants from the UK is welcome but those abused in care in the UK care also need recognition.
A new website has been launched to help Australian child migrants and others in care as children to reconnect with people from their past.

Responding to the announcement that Gordon Brown is to offer an apology to adults forcibly migrated to commonwealth countries as children, and to Australian Prime-minister Kevin Rudd’s forthcoming apology to all those abused in care as children in Australia, Will McMahon, Chair of the UK-based Care Leavers’ Association (1) said:

‘On November 16^th Kevin Rudd is to offer an apology to all adults who suffered abuse in care in Australia. The Care Leavers’ Association expects Gordon Brown to extend his New Year apology in the same way and to offer an apology to all care leavers who experienced abuse while in care in the UK. There is a need for an independent inquiry so that, like Australia, the UK can acknowledge and offer an apology for the events that took place.’ (2)

See below for contact details

New website launched to help thousands of care leavers of all ages make contact with each other.

This month the UK-based Care Leavers’ Association launched a unique social networking website for care leavers: www.careleaversreunited.org.

The new CareleaversReunited is the only website of its kind. It allows those who grew up in care to reconnect with people from their past. Already with thousands of users, who span seven different countries, including the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa, and growing at the rate of over a thousand new members a year, the website will connect care leavers across the UK and the world.

Victoria Hull, National Development Worker of the CLA said:

‘At the CLA we know that there are thousands of people all over the world, from teenagers to pensioners, searching to find those that they were in care with; we are confident that the new site will give them a good start in making that journey. We hope that, in time, not only in the UK but also across the world, tens of thousands of care leavers will find lost friends from their time in care.’

For more information, please contact:

Will McMahon, CLA National Chair, wsmcmahon@yahoo.co.uk 07968950223

Jim Goddard, CLA Charity Secretary, jim.goddard1@btopenworld.com 07740942135

Victoria Hull, CLA National Development Worker, Victoria@careleavers.com or via telephone at the CLA office:

CLA main office number 0161 236 1980

Notes to Editors:

(1) The CLA is the only organisation in the UK that represents and is run by care leavers of all ages. We campaign on behalf of all care leavers and are the most experienced, knowledgeable organisation on the care system of past decades.

www.careleavers.org

(2) In Ireland, Scotland and Australia prime or first ministers have all now offered an apology to adults who were abused in care as children.