KEVIN Rudd will apologise today to thousands of Australians shipped from Britain as children with the promise of a better life, only to face abuse and neglect. The Prime Minister will also say sorry to many more thousands of "forgotten Australians" who suffered in orphanages, foster homes and care between the 1930s and 1970s.Britain sent more than 130,000 poor children to Australia and other former colonies in the last century, many wiithout the knowledge or consent of their parents, according to the charity Child Migrants Trust.
Specialist agencies sent them abroad to populate British colonies with "good white British stock", the charity said, but most ended up in state institutions or farm schools.
Hundreds of former child migrants are expected in Canberra today to hear Mr Rudd's apology. It will cover 500,000 minors placed in care over the 40-year period, including some 7000 sent from Britain and still living in Australia.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to make his own apology, probably early next year.
"The apology is symbolically very important," Britain's Children's Secretary Ed Balls told Sky News.
It was a "matter of shame" that the "terrible policy" had continued for so long, he added.
"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."
Compensation battle
Former child migrant Harold Haig will witness the Rudd speech today. "We were told we were orphans and we found out in our '40s, '50s and '60s that was all a lie," he said. "We see the national apology as the first step, but our struggle for compensation will not end."
Compensation schemes exist in Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania and cases are before the courts in Victoria and NSW. Federal governments allocated more than $1 million to Child Migrant Trust branches in Melbourne and Perth but contributions have now ceased.
Julie Pearson, one of the children who lived in orphanages and institutions, will also be at Parliament House in Canberra to hear Mr Rudd's words, which she hopes will mark the beginning of the healing process.
"It's going to be hard for all of us, but we are finally going to get the apology we deserve - and it means so much to me," Ms Pearson, who was placed in a home during the 1970s, said.