Australia says ‘a really big, really sincere sorry' for child abuse

At a ceremony, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued an apology for the appalling treatment of hundreds of thousands of child migrants to Australia – some as young as three years old – who were abused or neglected in state care from 1930 to 1970. Hundreds of former forced migrants attended the ceremony. Meanwhile, the UK government has announced it would offer its apology in 2010. Rudd said that the "the truth is, this is an ugly story. The truth is great evil has been done". This apology comes a year after his formal apology for the many Aboriginal children who were taken from their parents and put in state institutions and with white families to be raised without connections to their heritage. This programme only ended in the 1960s. HISTORY OF UK CHILD MIGRANTS
UK the only country with a sustained history of child migration
In 1618, 100 sent from London to Richmond, Virginia
130,000 sent from the UK to Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) and Australia, including some 7,000 sent after World War II to Australia and 1,300 to New Zealand, then-Rhodesia and Canada. For more, read the BBC