Bush Orphanage, The: Recollections of a British Child Migrant and the Truth About Australia’s Human Trafficking Past

AUSTRALIANA

Between 1922 and 1967, up to 10,000 children, many as young as six, were literally plucked off the streets in Britain—taken from orphanages or snatched from the arms of single mothers or foster parents, and sent to Australia to help boost population. These children, with only a birth certificate (often false) as identification, with wrong names and birthdays to make tracing by their families impossible, were processed in the hundreds by corrupt officials within the Department of Immigration. What did these little children experience? Cruel institutionalization, loss of family and childhood, neglect and exploitation. brutality, and sexual assaults and rape. These victims lived their lives with intense feelings of fear, loneliness and confusion, low self-esteem, not knowing who their parents and siblings were, but not even knowing who they really were.
x, 298 p., [8], [8] p. of plates (some col.) : ill., facsims. ; 23 cm. #191021/300424