Gordon Brown today offered a "full and unconditional" apology to tens of thousands of British children exiled overseas who suffered physical and sexual abuse in orphanages and labour farms in Commonwealth countries.

The removal of children aged three to 14 continued until the late 1960s and was a "shameful" abuse of the most vulnerable in society, the prime minister acknowledged in a formal statement to the Commons.

A £6m Family Restoration Fund will be established to help survivors trace lost relatives and reunite those separated for decades after they were forcibly sent overseas to Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Zimbabwe.

Those who were falsely informed their parents had died and given new names and birth dates recalled the experience as more akin to "deportation than transportation", Brown told MPs.

The child migrant policy that resettled children abroad "proved to be misguided" and the children suffered severe hardship, he explained. "They were sent mostly without the knowledge of their parents …they were cruelly lied to. Some were separated from their brothers and sisters.

"Names and birthdays were deliberately changed so that so that it would be impossible for families to be reunited. When they arrived overseas they endured negligence and abuse … these children were robbed of their childhood. The pain of a lost childhood can last a lifetime.

"As prime minister," Brown said, "I want to apologise on behalf of the whole nation."

Referring to the £6m fund, he explained: "Although we cannot undo the events of the past, we can take action now to support people to regain their true identities; to reunite with their families and loved ones; and to go some way to repair the damage inflicted."

The leaders of the Tories, David Cameron, and the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, supported the statement. The child migrant policy was conducted under previous governments of various political complexion.

By The Guardian UK