Britain and Australia are saying sorry to thousands of British children who were promised a better life overseas, only to suffer abuse and neglect thousands of miles from home.

The British government said on Sunday that Prime Minister Gordon Brown will apologise for 20th-century child migrant programs that saw thousands of poor British children sent to Australia, Canada and other former colonies until the 1960s. Many ended up in institutions or were sent to work as farm labourers.

Brown's office said officials would consult with representatives of the surviving children before making a formal apology next year.

The Australian government says Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will offer his own apology on Monday to the child migrants, as well as to the "forgotten Australians," children who suffered in state care during the last century.

The British government has estimated 150,000 British children may have been shipped abroad under a variety of programs that operated between the early 19th century and 1967.

A 2001 Australian report said between 6,000 and 30,000 children from Britain and Malta, often taken from unmarried mothers or impoverished families, were sent alone to Australia as migrants during the 20th century. Some of the children were told, wrongly, that they were orphans.

The migration was intended to stop the children being a burden on the British state while supplying the receiving countries with potential workers. A 1998 British parliamentary inquiry noted: "A further motive was racist: the importation of 'good white stock' was seen as a desirable policy objective in the developing British Colonies."

British Children's Secretary Ed Balls said the child migrant policy was "a stain on our society."

"The apology is symbolically very important," he told Sky News television.

"I think it is important that we say to the children who are now adults and older people and to their offspring that this is something that we look back on in shame," he said.

"It would never happen today. But I think it is right that as a society when we look back and see things which we now know were morally wrong, that we are willing to say we're sorry."

Sandra Anker, who was sent to Australia from Britain when she was six, said the British government "have a lot to answer for".

"We've suffered all our lives," she told the BBC. "For the government of England to say sorry to us, it makes it right - even if it's late, it's better than not at all."

But official apologies for historical wrongs have proved controversial.

Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard resisted calls to apologise to institutionalised children and Australian Aborigines, arguing that contemporary Australians should not take responsibility for mistakes made by past generations.

Rudd reversed the policy after he was elected in 2007, apologising to Aborigines for 200 years of injustice since European settlement.

At a ceremony on Monday in Canberra attended by hundreds of former child migrants, Rudd will apologise for his country's role in the child migrants program and say sorry to the 7,000 survivors of the program who still live in Australia.

He also will apologise to the Australian children - more than 500,000, according to a 2004 Australian Senate report - who were placed in foster homes, orphanages and other institutions during the 20th century. Many were emotionally, physically and sexually abused in state care.

http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/uk-australia-apology-to-child-migrants-20091116-ign5.html


Bloody Appalling!
Should we really take any advice from these countries concerning US immigration policy?

I must say that the idea of apologising for something that was seen as right to do at the time, but is now considered morally and perhaps legally wrong, is a good idea.

If those adults are today suffering either directly or indirectly as a result of the migrations you've stated, then this apology is long overdue.

The problem with apologies therefore is that they are in a way, an admission of wrong doing, and as such, people do expect something done after the apology. Given the compensation culture, I can see why governments can be reluctant to give apologies of a public nature, especially on issues such as this one which can cause volatility.

Nonetheless, for the purpose of moving on, or creating better awareness, apologies can be a good point to begin to reconcile and forge new beginnings.

The disrespective nature with which British empire came to be meant that for so many people, their way of life became permanently disrupted through the instillation of western ideals which today's globalised world largely subscribes to. There are benefits to this, but for the purpose of my point, there are drawbacks that continue to bedevil todays generations, e.g. racism. This was born out of those ideals and attitudes.

I welcome Australia's apology because it is the most noble way of accepting responsibility, and lays a platform within which future generations can refer to, instead of denying the truth. If Britain as well as apologising for the mass emmigration of these children could also apologise for slavery, it would be a good starting point to address the "who started it" type question that I sometimes ask myself when I try to understand racism. This question is normally asked by parents when two children are fighting, and it normally ends with an apology if the two children want to move on.

I lost my support for Tony Blair for poo pooing issues like this particular one.

Well said!

Too many times on here, I have read people from England and Australia calling our immigration policies in humane.
Meddling in our internal policies just for wanting to keep our borders secure and protecting our standard of living by the influx's of cheap labor.
I have always said they should learn to mind their own immigration policies before trying to offer us advice or verbal condemnation.

maybe they should apologize for totally f'ning up wherever they went.

No one nation, with germany a close second, has raped and pillaged more cultures and societies than the british.

How about Italy to apologize for having an empire?
France?
Egypt for the Pharaohs?

Apologizing for something doesn't make sense. Especially if the people living there today have ZERO to do what happened 50-100-4000 years ago.

British Children's Secretary Ed Balls

sorry

that part made me laugh

I think Obama should issue an apology to everyone for everything. Wipe the slate clean.. haha

Dear Cherokee Nation,

sorry

signed Steve Jackson (Andy's great great grandson)

Dear Aztecs,

sorry

signed Bob Cortez

Dear Jews

sorry

signed,

Nancy Hitler