By Catarina Demony
LONDON (Reuters) -A Caribbean delegation is set to travel to Brussels and London next month to bring the highly divisive issue of reparations for slavery and colonialism to the table, organisers have told Reuters.
At least 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped, forcibly transported by European ships and sold into slavery from the 15th to the 19th centuries.
Calls for reparations are longstanding but have been gaining momentum, particularly among the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the African Union (AU).
Backlash against it has also been growing, and many of Europe’s leaders have opposed even talking about reparations.
Organised by the Repair Campaign, a group advocating for reparations in the Caribbean, the trip will start in Brussels on July 1, where the delegation will host a briefing with European Union (EU) lawmakers.
In 2023, the EU said Europe inflicted “untold suffering” on millions of people but even though some member states have acknowledged past wrongs, no country has agreed to reparations.
The delegation will then travel to London, where they will hold a briefing in parliament on July 2.
The delegation’s aim is to “open a dialogue” with European and British representatives about their countries’ roles in advancing reparations, according to organisers.
The delegation includes Caribbean academics and policy experts, as well as members of national reparations committees established by CARICOM member states and backed by their respective governments.
CARICOM has a reparations plan, which, among other demands, calls for technology transfers and investments to tackle health crises and illiteracy. The AU is developing its own plan.
Opponents of reparations argue that contemporary states and institutions should not be held responsible for their past. But advocates say action is needed to address the legacies, such as racism.
Britain, which transported an estimated 3.2 million people, the most active European country after Portugal, has also rejected calls for reparations.
(Reporting by Catarina Demony; Editing by William James)
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