A new film tells the story of a Nottingham graduate and his wife and their 25-year campaign to uncover one of the biggest social scandals in recent history.

From 1945 to 1967, around 4,500 children in care in the UK were deported to Australia, Canada, Zimbabwe and New Zealand under the Child Migration Scheme. Many suffered harsh conditions, neglect and abuse.

Oranges and Sunshine, directed by Jim Loach, tells the story of social worker Margaret Humphreys CBE, who, with her husband Mervyn (Social Administration 1971), campaigned to uncover the human cost of migration and to establish rights of former child migrants.

The couple set up the city-based Child Migrants Trust in their son’s bedroom in 1987. The Trust has already facilitated the reunion of 1,200 former child migrants with their families. A major breakthrough came in the last two years, with public apologies from both UK and Australian governments and the setting up of a £6m Family Restoration Fund in the UK, which will help support a further 900 reunion visits over three years.

The film was made on location in the East Midlands, with the film crew using facilities at the King’s Meadow campus, formerly the home of Carlton TV.

“In the 1980s, Margaret was running a post-adoption support group and I acted as a consultant,” said Mervyn.

“A woman from Nottingham, who had been sent to Australia as a child migrant, wanted to find out about her background and got in touch because there was no other service. We were something of a pioneering group because we brought together all sides of the adopted triangle, parents, adopted people and birth parents.”

Two major features about their work appeared in the Observer, leading to more and more requests from former child migrants. And so the Trust was set up.

“Our clients had the worst possible start to life. It’s very difficult for anyone who’s had a normal childhood to imagine what these people went through — a child of four or five being sent to the other side of the world, being told they are an orphan, being brought up in large institutions in a pretty rough and ready way and then being left to fend for themselves.

“We’re very pleased with the film. We felt that the makers would treat the subject and our clients with due regard and respect and that’s certainly been the case. It’s a major achievement to get a feature film about our work but our primary concern is not us — we’re really interested in what light the film sheds on the issue.

“We’re interested in the issue being discussed, thinking through the implications and dilemmas of when children are separated from their parents, the enduring impact on both sides and what you can do to bring them together if possible.”

To find out more about the Trust, please visit www.childmigrantstrust.com. You can see publicity about the film at www.iconmovies.co.uk/orangesandsunshine.