A boy in one of the orphanages in Australia.
Kevin Rudd, the Australian Prime Minister, today issued a full and unreserved apology to Australia’s forgotten children.
It is estimated that between 1947 and 1967 between 7,000 and 11,000 children from Britain were sent to Australia. It was part of an immigration plan by the then Australian Immigration Minister Arthur Calwell to bring “good white stock” into Australia. In reality the programme began around 1930 and didn’t stop until as late as 1970, by then around 500,000 British children had been rehomed in Australia, Canada and elsewhere
Many of the child migrants were apparently abandoned and from poverty-stricken areas, all were of primary school age. However many of the parents gave up their children on a promise that they would lead a better life, one full of promise and hope. Instead many of the children suffered horrendous abuse. Some of the children were wrongly told that their parents were dead.
Hundreds of former child migrants were present at the Canberra ceremony where Mr Rudd shared stories from the survivors he had spoken to. Many of them held each other and wept as they relived the horror and abuse of their early years.
“We are sorry” Mr Rudd told the victims. “Sorry for the tragedy -Â the absolute tragedy of childhoods lost. 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.”
Mr Rudd also issued a statement pledging that such a tragedy would never happen again. “Let us resolve this day that this national apology becomes a turning point in our nation’s story,” he said. ”A turning point for governments’ to do all in our power to never allow this to happen again.”
The coalition of the Alliance for Forgotten Australians said they “wholeheartedly” welcomed the Australian Government’s apology. Ms Caroline Carroll, chair of the Alliance told how, in 2004, Senators wept as they told of the abuse, cruelty and neglect that these children were subjected to by their ‘carers’. She said: “Now it is our turn to weep - but with relief and joy,”
“Finally, our Australian Government will openly acknowledge that what happened to us was wrong. This is a turning point for Forgotten Australians.” But she also revealed that tragically, one man who had campaigned all his life for the forgotten Australians, had committed suicide just days before the official apology.
The UK government, responsible for the sending of many child migrants to Australia and Canada, have said that the Prime Minister will apologise next year. There was no word from the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper about whether an apology will also be forthcoming from the Canadian Government.
Were you one of the child migrants? We’d love to hear your story, please use the comments box below or get in touch with us directly.
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