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Aussies Sorry for 10K Kids Shipped for 'Slave Labor'

British children were abused, kept hungry in program lasting until 1960s

By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 31, 2009 6:20 AM CDT
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(Newser) – The Australian prime minister will apologize to generations of British migrants shipped to Australia as children and subjected to abuse, hunger, and slave labor. Between the 1920s and 1960s the UK sent about 10,000 children to provide Australia with "good white stock," but when they arrived they were put to work in state and religious institutions. "Often we were called by a number, not even a name. It's a shameful part of Australia's history," said one victim.

Most of the British children shipped to Australia were told they were orphans, but in fact they were taken from their mothers as illegitimate babies—and often their parents did not know they were shipped away. The move to recognize their abuse comes after a series of inquiries. In 2004, the country's senate reported "a litany of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse" in Australian institutions. 

Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.   (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
The Australian government will apologize for a program lasting through the 1960s that put British children in abusive institutions.
The Australian government will apologize for a program lasting through the 1960s that put British children in abusive institutions.   (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim)
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I would never, ever, like my childhood days to come back again. It was so cruel, it was so un-Christian, it was brutality at its worst. - John Hennessy, who was sent from a British orphanage to Australia in 1947

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 4 comments
Jassy
Aug 31, 2009 11:28 AM CDT
I guess every country has shameful things buried in their history somewhere. Hopefully, we live, learn and evolve.
NxBigmouthery
Aug 31, 2009 11:03 AM CDT
These kids were not shipped from the UK to be slaves. It is true that a good number of the kids went on to be mistreated in egregious ways. But that's one hell of a misleading headline. Anyone who knows anything about Australia's darker past knows that this issue is up there with the genocide of the indigenous people and the removal of indigenous children from their parents' care. They'd also know that up until the end of WW2, Australians still considered themselves British, and called a place many had never been 'home'. It was only when Australians realised that the British could not be counted on in times of crisis that a new identity was forged, and only then were attempts made to rectify the horrible mistakes of the past. Obviously, we're still in the process of doing that.
prowlerzee
Aug 31, 2009 4:11 AM CDT
Haha...not surprised. Australia dates their country not from the date of their constitution but from the day the Brits first dumped the felons on the island. And now we see what happens when you populate a nation with felons...that's the stock of the everyone there except for the aborigines. What can you expect from a nation whose "Captain Kangaroo" is "Aunty Jack"---a bearded biker in a dress. And that's their idea of *good* children's fare.

 
Australia • slave labor • sexual abuse • abuse • orphan • Kevin Rudd

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