0:00:00 > 0:00:01from Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean to repopulate
0:00:01 > 0:00:05rural areas of France.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37They were taken from their island home as children and moved thousands
0:00:37 > 0:00:39of kilometres to France.
0:00:49 > 0:00:52Now, France is facing up to a scandal that robbed more
0:00:52 > 0:00:54than 2000 children of everything they knew.
0:01:16 > 0:01:25Our story starts in central France, just outside the city of Limoges.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29Marlene Morin moved to the area more than 50 years ago as an orphan
0:01:29 > 0:01:32from the tiny island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean,
0:01:33 > 0:01:35after French Social Services sold her a lie.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14Did you ever see your sister again?
0:02:32 > 0:02:37Unlike Marlene, Marise was too young to choose her new French life.
0:02:37 > 0:02:39Her biological mother had put her into care in Reunion
0:02:39 > 0:02:42when she was just a month old.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44Marise was resettled by social services to mainland
0:02:44 > 0:02:47France aged six.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45Maryse is one of the newest members of a group that has been battling
0:03:45 > 0:03:48for years to find out why 2150 children were uprooted
0:03:48 > 0:03:49from their island and moved to France.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04In a vicarage near Toulouse, they're accounting their stories.
0:04:04 > 0:04:08Not everyone had a bad experience, but many suffered terribly.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11There was racism, sexual abuse and violence, as well as loss
0:04:11 > 0:04:14of their culture and identity.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31Marlene is here, too.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35Both she and Maryse will soon travel back to Reunion for the first time
0:04:35 > 0:04:36courtesy of the French state, which is perhaps finally listening.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47For two years, a government appointed commission has been
0:04:47 > 0:04:49investigating what happened to these men and women
0:04:49 > 0:04:50at the hands of France.
0:04:50 > 0:04:54Many here have shocking stories to tell.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48Once a French colony, Reunion became one of the country's
0:05:48 > 0:05:51overseas departments in 1946.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10By the 1960s, with an exploding birth rate, this desperately poor
0:06:10 > 0:06:12island found its orphanages filling up with children,
0:06:13 > 0:06:16many of whom weren't orphans at all.
0:06:16 > 0:06:22Their families simply couldn't provide for them.
0:06:22 > 0:06:24The island's French MP, Michel Debre, introduced a policy
0:06:24 > 0:06:27he thought would solve the problem.
0:06:27 > 0:06:29From 1963 until 1982, Social Services oversaw
0:06:29 > 0:06:31the resettlement of children to rural parts of mainland France,
0:06:31 > 0:06:36where populations were in decline.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38Some were adopted, others put into children's homes
0:06:38 > 0:06:43and religious institutions.
0:06:43 > 0:06:46Amongst the footage from the time, in TV reports that portray
0:06:46 > 0:06:50the children of Reunion as lucky to have been given a new life
0:06:50 > 0:06:53in a better place, Marlene's 19-year-old self.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55When she'd first arrived four years before,
0:06:55 > 0:06:57she was given minimal schooling.
0:06:57 > 0:07:02Instead, she says, she worked the land in a rural convent.
0:07:50 > 0:07:52In the end, the education Marlene was promised amounted
0:07:52 > 0:07:53to an agricultural diploma.
0:07:53 > 0:07:55She ended up working as a supermarket cashier
0:07:55 > 0:07:57and on a production line.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59She'd already done that in the convent.
0:07:59 > 0:08:01The nuns had had her glueing boxes for factory
0:08:01 > 0:08:04produced sugared almonds.
0:08:31 > 0:08:32Was it racist?
0:08:32 > 0:08:37Was it well-meaning, but with dire consequences?
0:08:37 > 0:08:40Through the modern lens, uprooting children from their culture
0:08:40 > 0:08:44and whatever family ties they might have, leaving them thousands
0:08:44 > 0:08:54of miles across the world and then not fulfilling your promises,
0:08:54 > 0:08:57it looks, at best, ill-judged, and at worst, wrong and cruel.
0:08:57 > 0:09:02And it went on into the 1980s.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08Jesse and her younger brother and sister were in the first
0:09:08 > 0:09:11resettled group from Reunion to arrive at this children's home
0:09:11 > 0:09:13in south-western France in 1967.
0:09:53 > 0:09:55Jessie has spent years trying to discover the background
0:09:55 > 0:09:58to her family story.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02But her care files from this children's home have disappeared.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06Do you think you can judge what happened back then
0:10:06 > 0:10:07through modern eyes?
0:10:56 > 0:10:59I came to Paris to find out how the French Government views
0:10:59 > 0:11:01the scandal now.
0:11:01 > 0:11:03In 2014, the Parliament accepted the state's moral
0:11:03 > 0:11:06responsibility for it.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08Those who were exiled hope President Macron will apologise
0:11:08 > 0:11:10for what happened once the investigating commission
0:11:10 > 0:11:12delivers its report.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10It's a big moment.
0:13:10 > 0:13:12Marlene's first visit to her island in 52 years.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16She's brought her daughter, Aurore, for support.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19The scandal of Reunion's exiled children has become a story across
0:13:19 > 0:13:20France.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23The government's now paying airfares and some expenses so
0:13:23 > 0:13:28exiles can revisit their island every three years if they wish to.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31And some of Marise's sisters are at the airport
0:13:31 > 0:13:35to meet her for the first time.
0:13:35 > 0:13:39But there is no one to greet Marlene.
0:14:25 > 0:14:28Five decades have meant huge change on an island that
0:14:28 > 0:14:32is culturally Creole and very French.
0:14:32 > 0:14:34Once uninhabited, Reunion now has a population of nearly
0:14:34 > 0:14:39865,000.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43It is still much poorer here than mainland France.
0:14:43 > 0:14:48The economy is underpinned by French aid.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54In an attempt to help exiles find out about their past, the
0:14:54 > 0:14:55French government has demanded any documents
0:14:55 > 0:14:57the authorities hold are
0:14:57 > 0:15:02handed over to the individuals involved.
0:15:51 > 0:15:55Next, it's Marlene's turn.
0:16:41 > 0:16:43Marise's biological father died in 2006.
0:16:43 > 0:16:48Before they had a chance to meet.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51His daughters are the living link in her search for an identity.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55But their first meeting didn't deliver the resemblance for which
0:16:55 > 0:17:02she yearned.
0:17:29 > 0:17:35It's a big step so soon after meeting sisters with whom she
0:17:35 > 0:17:42clearly already has a bond.
0:17:42 > 0:17:44What will happen if the DNA test is negative and you're not related?
0:18:04 > 0:18:07Marlene's come to pay her respects to Giselle, the sister who tried
0:18:07 > 0:18:11to persuade her not to go to France.
0:18:11 > 0:18:16Though she's been dead for years, there is only a bare plaque.
0:18:28 > 0:18:30But Marlene knows she has another sister, Marianique.
0:18:30 > 0:18:33She's desperate to find her, but she's not sure
0:18:33 > 0:18:40whether she is alive or dead.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42We went to the town hall looking for clues.
0:18:42 > 0:18:50So you have an address for your sister.
0:18:51 > 0:18:57Two hours later came the phone call Marlene had only
0:18:57 > 0:18:58dared to dream of.
0:18:58 > 0:19:00From Marianique herself.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18So what is it like to see her now?
0:21:19 > 0:21:24With their suffering now starting to be acknowledged and the French
0:21:24 > 0:21:28government paying their airfares, 11 exiles returned to Reunion in 2017.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31Another 30 are already planning trips this year.
0:21:32 > 0:21:37For many of them, the experience will be bittersweet.