Holiday firm Thomas Cook has made a donation to Unicef worth half the £3m compensation it received from a Corfu hotel where two children on holiday died in 2006.
But it has faced criticism for not seeking the approval of the children's parents first.
Christi and Bobby Shepherd died of carbon monoxide poisoning while holidaying with their father at the Louis Corcyra Beach Hotel, as part of a £2,000 Thomas Cook package holiday.
The children's parents received £350,000 compensation each, but Thomas Cook today confirmed it had received £3m compensation from the hotel.
The company was awarded damages by the Louis Group in October 2012 in relation to the incident.
Peter Fankhauser, group chief executive, said that half of the £3m went towards the holiday firm’s legal costs and had donated the other half to international children’s charity Unicef because it was “the right thing to do”.
“Today I have made arrangements for the amount – £1.5m - to be donated in full to Unicef, the world’s leading children’s organisation," he said. "I believe this is the right thing to do and I apologise to the family for all they have gone through.”
However Unicef said it had only accepted the donation on the understanding that the parents had been informed, and today the parents denied this had been the case.
Mary Creagh, Labour MP for Wakefield, who has been supporting Neil Shepherd or Sharon Wood, the children’s parents, is reported by The Guardian newspaper as saying that the firm did not consult either before making the donation. She said the parents felt they had not been properly treated.
“Their feeling is that this once more is not about them, it’s about Thomas Cook,” Creagh told The Guardian. “Thomas Cook have not contacted them about this.”
A spokeswoman from Unicef UK said: "This is a tragic case and we offer our sympathies to the family of Christianne and Robert Shepherd.
"Thomas Cook has confirmed it will be donating £1.5m to Unicef and we will use this money to help keep vulnerable children safe around the world.
"We asked that Thomas Cook inform the family before the donation was made and we were given that assurance."
In a statement released over the weekend, the parents also said that it was “disgraceful” that an apparent letter of apology from Thomas Cook to them over their children’s deaths had been circulated to the media first.
