Govt should apologise to UK child migrants - Labour

The Government needs to listen and apologise to British child migrants who suffered after being sent to New Zealand decades ago, the Labour Party says.

The call has come after the Australian government said sorry over the treatment of children who migrated to that country in the 1940s and 1950s.

Under the British migrant scheme, thousands of the children were placed in Australian state institutions, where they suffered neglect and abuse.

"Sorry for the tragedy, the absolute tragedy of childhoods lost," Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said at Parliament House in Canberra yesterday.

The British government said Prime Minister Gordon Brown would also apologise for its role in the scheme.

New Zealand received 549 child migrants between 1948 and 1954, some of whom have said they were mistreated.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett said most were placed in foster care here and their experiences could not be compared to those had in Australia.

"A number of safeguards were introduced to care for the new arrivals," she said.

A previous National government had more recently set up a process to find child migrants and tell them what help was available to them, including supporting them in reuniting with family in Britain and allowing them to apply free for citizenship here.

Ms Bennett said today the repatriation of the children must have been traumatic, but steps had been taken to redress the issues and a state apology was "unlikely to happen".

Her Labour Party opposite Annette King said Ms Bennett appeared to be "closing her ears" to what has been said by former child migrants.

"If people were abused and mistreated, then they would expect their government to say how sorry they were that that happened to them," she told NZPA.

"These kids were sent from their homes to New Zealand - many of them not knowing they had parents."

Ms King said it would be embarrassing for New Zealand if the British and Australian governments apologised, but ours didn't because it considered it had done enough.

"I think it would be a terrible shame if our government didn't hear what was being said by those in New Zealand - just because we had fewer and many went to foster homes and not institutions.

She said an apology now would be timely as the issue had re-emerged and many New Zealanders were learning things which they had not previously known about.

Labour leader Phil Goff said National should be prepared at least to listen, but Ms Bennett appeared to have ruled that out.

"I think the sensible thing is to listen, and if there are grounds for an apology being given, then that would be the right thing to do."