Kevin Rudd Australian PM
Australia's prime minister, Kevin Rudd, has made an emotional apology for the abuse and neglect endured by hundreds of thousands of child migrants who were sent to Australia without their consent.
Source: The Agencies
- Many of the thousands of so-called "forgotten Australians" had been promised a better life in Australia, but instead suffered sexual abuse and violence in state and church care homes and other institutions.
- Around half a million children, including thousands of British migrants, were sent to Australia between about 1930 and 1970.
- Echoing an historic address a year earlier apologising to Australia's indigenous Aborigine community, Rudd said it was time to right the wrongs done to thousands of child migrants.
- "We come together today to offer our nation's apology," Rudd said at a ceremony in Canberra on Monday, speaking before about 1,000 victims of abuse.
- Kevin's apology follows a 2004 inquiry by the Australian senate which unearthed hundreds of stories of children placed in care due to family breakdown, because their mothers were unmarried or because they were considered uncontrollable.
- Many of the children were told that they were orphans, although most had either been abandoned or taken from their families by the state.
- In many cases siblings were split up once they arrived in Australia.
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