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I'm a bit late in posting this, but thought I'd share this anyway. On 16 November 2009, the Australian Prime Minister provided an official apology to the 7,000 to 10,000 of estimated Australians who were shipped to Australia from the UK as child migrants and were then kept (and often abused) in state care. Excerpt from the Parliamentary Library: Although not all children claim mistreatment, the Trust points out that ‘little attention was given to the long-term implications of separating children from their families, their friends, their social context and their country on a permanent basis’.[URL="http://www.aph.gov.au/Library/Pubs/BN/sp/ChildMigrants.htm"]Forgotten Australians’ and ‘Lost Innocents’: child migrants and children in institutional care in AustraliaForgotten Australians’ and ‘Lost Innocents’: child migrants and children in institutional care in Australia[/URL] The italicized excerpt makes we now wonder whether how much 'attention is given to the long-term implications of adoption' and whether our governments will issue similar apologies in future, once more adoptees come forth to break our silence and voice our collective pain. While I'm not anti-adoption, I'm against the lack of information, research and support that is available within the wider community regarding the complexities of adoption. Prime Minister's Speech[URL="http://www.alp.org.au/media/1109/mspm160.php"]Australian Labor Party : Apology to the Forgotten Australians[/URL] News coverage[URL="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1132802/Apology-for-'Forgotten-Australians'"]World News Australia - Apology for 'Forgotten Australians'[/URL] Excerpt from news article: 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.
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