⁣During the 1950s and 1960s, Britain’s Merchant Navy reaped vast profits from government-subsidized emigration of British nationals to the United States and Dominions. British emigrants, economically exiled or indentured, included 130,000 British children many of whom were orphans. Babes in arms were seized and taken from orphanages and care wards.
⁣Children were often told they were going on a day-trip, only to be shipped to Australia or Canada. ⁣Thousands of grieving children were settled in institutions abroad where they were to suffer deprivation, slave-like conditions, physical and sexual abuse. Before being taken ‘into care’ untold numbers of these youngsters were lied to and told that they had no parents.