Church of England statement on IICSA’s Child Migration Report

01/03/2018

The findings published today from IICSA’s investigation into Child Migration make distressing reading and we are truly sorry for any part the Church of England, through its Advisory Council for Empire Settlement (CEACES), played in supporting the Government’s migration programme. We renew our apology to the children and their families who were affected by this scheme. As we stated after the hearing last summer, we pay tribute to the courage of the former child migrants who came forward to share their stories providing detailed accounts of how unaccompanied children sent abroad, supposedly for a better life, often suffered appalling hurt and abuse.

While there is some evidence of reporting back to CEACES, we accept that this was not enough to provide detailed information on how the children were being treated abroad. Although the migration programmes are closed, we hope that the conclusions of IICSA’s report will be widely read to ensure that this never happens again. As a Church we accept the recommendations and will be considering the detail of the report’s findings.

If you are affected by child migration and want to talk to someone in the Church, please email the National Safeguarding Team at [email protected] and someone will contact you.