France faces up to scandal of Réunion's stolen children Hundreds of children were taken from island territory in official scheme to boost French rural population in 1960s and 70s

General Discussion
1

The header for this post is a headline taken straight out of the dear old Grauniad. Therefore it is a bit like the story it tells. Anyway, take a look and reflect on France's shame:


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/16/france-reunion-stolen-children


Between 1963 and 1982,1,615 children were taken from Réunion to boost a falling population in rural France. Tomorrow the National Assembly will discuss this awful part of France's recent history for the first time. It is so recent that some of the people are still relatively young; some were 'snatched' from their cradles aged six months. Their families were basically tricked into giving up their children so that they could go to France for a better life. Nobody asked any of the children whether they wanted to go; many were already old enough to decide.



It will be interesting to see how this discussion turns out and what they will do to 'make amends' if that is at all possible.

2

Add this France 24 link to the reading list:

www.france24.com/fr/20140217-france-reunion-enfants-deracines-creuse-resolution-assemblee/?ns_campaign=editorial&ns_source=FB&ns_mchannel=reseaux_sociaux&ns_fee=0&ns_linkname=20140217_france_reunion_en

3

Ironically,We watched the film Philomena last night. Very heart wrenching and to say, it's a true story. The Sixsmith character got it spot on about religion (in my eyes). Watch it if you get the chance.

4

Yes, I have a couple of books on the British children, particularly ones with testimony. The parallels are very obvious and whilst the UK was already owning up in the 70s, even a few children (too few actually) returned to families, this has been buried too long. Reading your links I must say I am now looking forward to some well researched books appearing on the topic. It is not the only instance here in France and therefore I hope that it will open up the whole can of worms and contribute to such terrible things happening in the future. For me, with child trafficking within my professional domain, after the fuss the French have made about that and this being no better morally, they might wake up and see the light, stop telling the rest of the world what should be done and how to do it and then actually do something themselves.

There endeth the sermon!

5

We have had friends in Reunion for 40 years or more, as it is very close to Mauritius. We've spent a few times with them over the years, but this was never brought up. Having read this article, I can now see why. It'll have been hushed up because it is an horrendous piece of French history.