The chairman of Caricom’s Commission on Reparations told the UK’s House of Commons that Britain has “a case to answer” when it comes to compensation and justice over slavery.

Sir Hilary Beckles, a professor at the University of the West Indies, said slave ships took 5.5 million Africans into Britain’s Caribbean colonies for 180 years, and that when slavery was abolished in 1838 just 80,000, remained as a result of genocide.

He said the UK Parliament could help to correct “the terrible wrongs of the past” to ensure that humanity was “finally and truthfully liberated from the shame and guilt that have followed these historical crimes”.

To read Sir Hilary’s full address, presented in the House of Commons last week, click on the link to the left.