Australia apologises to mistreating migrant children
- 00:01:51
- ITN
Australia apologises to mistreating migrant children
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has apologised to the thousands of British migrants who were abused or neglected in state care as children. The Child Migrants Programme, which ended 40 years ago, sent poor children from the UK to a "better life" in Australia and elsewhere, but many were abused and ended up in institutions or as labourers on farms. Speaking to a gathering of 1,000 victims known as the "Forgotten Australians" at Parliament House in Canberra, Mr Rudd said: "We are sorry. "Sorry that as children you were taken from your families and placed in institutions where so often you were abused. Sorry for the physical suffering, the emotional starvation and the cold absence of love, of tenderness, of care. "Sorry for the tragedy - the absolute tragedy - of childhoods lost." The UK Government have said Gordon Brown will issue an apology for the UK's role in the forced migration in the New Year. Mr Rudd said the Australian government wanted the national apology to become "a turning point in our nation's story". He recognised the mistreatment and continued suffering of some 500,000 people held in orphanages or children's homes between 1930 and 1970. As they were shipped out of Britain, the children were separated from their families and many were told - wrongly - they were orphans, while the parents were told that they had gone to a better life. Mr Rudd added it was important to acknowledge the past to be able to move forward as a nation. He said he hoped that the victims would be known as the "remembered Australians" from now on.
ITN | November 16, 2009
