Я сегодня узнала об этом своебразном эпизоде в истории Британии (услышала по  BBC).

 

Вот тут описание : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/6569274/Australia-to-say-sorry-to-abused-British-child-migrants.html

 

Вкратце: 

С начала 19 в до 1967 года британия отсылала в Австралию (и ряд других стран) детей . "Although estimates are unreliable, the Government has records of at least 150,000 child migrants from Britain, aged three to 14, of whom about 100,000 went to Canada, and the remainder to Australia, New Zealand, Rhodesia and other British dominions or colonies."

 

Зачем: "In the early part of the 19th Century, about 440 children were sent to South Africa as a substitute for the slave labour, which had recently been abolished. It was after 1850 however and the amendments to the poor laws of the UK, that the practise became an institution. Approximately 100,000 children were shipped to Canada between 1899 and 1967. The majority of these children were employed in rural areas, the boys as farmhands and the girls as domestic servants." 
"There were also economic considerations at play - by removing the children from Britain, the colonies and not Britain would have to cope with the drain on its resources in providing for the children. Then there was also the motivation of populating the colonies with 'good white' British stock."

 

Интересна роль charities при этом: "The agencies, which dealt with the children, were by and large private charitable and religious organisations, the most significant of which was Barnardo's, a philanthropic protestant group run by Dr Thomas Barnardo. The poor law authorities, which accounted for the public sector involvement in the schemes, had a far less significant role to play, although their capacity for involvement was enhanced in 1850 with amendments to the poor law that allow the poor law authorities under certain conditions to expend money for emigration of 'poor orphan or deserted ' children. "

 

вот тут описано в деталях: