British Child Migrants Plan Vigil outside Child Sex Abuse Royal Commission in Perth

ABC News
April 25, 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-25/child-migrants-plan-vigil-at-child-sex-abuse-royal-commission/5412532

British child migrants who suffered sexual abuse at Christian Brothers institutions in Western Australia are planning a silent vigil outside hearings for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Perth next week.

Thousands of children - some aged only three - were from 1947 shipped to Australia from Britain, often without their parents' knowledge or consent.

They were sent to institutions that survivors have described as being more like concentration camps than children's homes.

While inspections by a British government committee blacklisted many of the institutions in 1956, children continued to be deported until 1970.

The fortnight of hearings will be the first time the British abuse survivors, who were placed at the Bindoon, Castledare, Clontarf and Tardun orphanages, will give public testimony to the royal commission.

Norman Johnston, sent to Clontarf in 1950 at age eight, said he hoped the investigation provided answers as to how the children were taken from their beds and trafficked to Australia and why they were exposed to such cruel treatment once here.

"We have waited all our lives for this moment, a chance for the truth to be told in public. Whilst it is a momentous day we still know that so much remains hidden," Mr Johnston said.

"We are thankful for the apologies from government, both in this country and the United Kingdom, but we still do not know the full truth about why were we taken from our parents and given to those who made our lives a living hell in Australia."

He also called on the UK government to set up a judicial inquiry into the matter.

The hearings begin in Perth on Monday.