Margaret Humphreys, a former Notts social worker, uncovered a scandal linked to child migration to Australia. On Monday, she will hear the Australian Prime Minister apologise for the suffering of those sent away and the families they left behind. CHARLES WALKER reports

FINALLY, the Australian government is to apologise for its role in the forced migration of children.

Until 1967 thousands of UK children were sent to Australia without the knowledge or permission of their parents.

The youngsters, some as young as three, were put on ships and taken to Western Australia through the collusion of the Australian and British governments, charities, churches and religious orders.

The policy was designed to populate Australia with "good British stock" in the face of fears about an increasingly Asian population.

The procedure was uncovered in the 1980s by Margaret Humphreys, a social worker at Nottinghamshire County Council, after she received a letter from a former migrant asking for help finding her family.

Research revealed children were removed from the United Kingdom to Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. In the post-war era approximately 7,000 children were shipped to Australia.

Mrs Humphreys set up the Child Migrants Trust in West Bridgford to help former migrants contact their parents.

Former migrants have called her a "modern Florence Nightingale" for her efforts to reunite families and heal the pain of separation.

Harold Haig of the International Association of Former Child Migrants said: "There are not words to describe what a fantastic job Margaret Humphreys has done. If it had not been for her dragging the whole putrid scandal from under the carpet, migrants would still have been in darkness."

On Monday Mrs Humphreys will take her place in the Great Hall at Parliament House in Canberra, to hear Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologise.

A statement issued by the Australian Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs said Mr Rudd would apologise to those who suffered neglect as a result as child migration, as well as others abused in state care.

The statement said: "They include more than 7,000 child migrants who arrived under historical child migration schemes and who were often subsequently placed in homes and orphanages. The apology, which has bipartisan support, will acknowledge the abuse and neglect suffered by many of these children and reflects the Government's determination that these terrible practices will never be repeated.

"Many former child migrants... their families and the wider community have suffered from a system that did not adequately provide for, or protect, children in its care.

"The apology will acknowledge that."

Mrs Humphreys, her colleagues at the trust, and former migrants, have wanted the apology for many years. The trust was instrumental in forcing a Senate Inquiry into child migration in Australia in 2001.

It acknowledged the "horrendous" levels of physical, sexual and emotional abuse which occurred when the children were in care.

Senators cried when they heard the harrowing stories of former migrants. The inquiry paved the way for an apology, but it did not come, until now.

charles.walker@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk