At its Annual General Meeting in Mexico City on 25 November 2017, the Association of Commonwealth Archivists and Records Managers (ACARM) adopted a position paper on the issue of Migrated Archives. The Migrated Archives are a series of records created in former British colonies and removed to the United Kingdom prior to the independence of the colonies in question. The position paper (attached) was drafted by Dr Mandy Banton of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, who was colonial records specialist at the UK National Archives for many years. The draft was circulated to ACARM members for comment and then revised and presented at the AGM, where it was endorsed by unanimous vote. The position paper provides the background to the Migrated Archives and calls on the British government to return the records to the former colonies, now independent countries.

Please circulate this position paper widely.