Friday 6 January 2017

These child "migrants" wanted to stay at home

During the years 1963-1982 some 2000 children were taken from their homes in La Reunion, a French overseas department and flown to the mainland. They were sent mainly to under-populated areas and are often known as "les enfants de la Creuse", after the largely deserted central department.
Their parents, usually poor and illiterate families, were offered a chance by Reunion social services to send their children to be "educated" in France and were asked to sign papers to allow the children to leave. Most never went back and many suffered isolation and discrimination in areas where black people were few and far between.
Some "enfants de la Creuse"
A government enquiry was set up in 2016 and has so far identified 2150 children "exiled" under the scheme. Some sixty will give evidence to the enquiry this week in Gueret in Creuse.
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