The Children of Creuse
The Children of Creuse refers to 1,630 children forcibly moved from Réunion to rural metropolitan France between 1963 and 1982. It is well known in Reunion, where it is called the affaire des Enfants de la Creuse or affaire des Réunionnais de la Creuse.
These children, "abandoned or not", were declared by the French authorities of the Department for Health and Social Affairs to be wards of the state. They were transported by the authorities from Reunion, in order to repopulate metropolitan departments such as Creuse, Tarn, Gers, Lozère and East Pyrenees which had lost population to the movement from rural areas to metropolitan areas.
This forcible transport of children was organized under the leadership of Michel Debré, MP for Reunion at the time.
