Sydney  - The thousands of British children raised in Australian orphanages where neglect, brutality and even sexual abuse were commonplace received a formal apology Monday in the Canberra Parliament.

As many as 10,000 children whom Britain didn't want because they were born to single mothers or into poor homes were shipped out to Australia from 1947-67.

Often falsely labeled orphans and not told they had brothers and sisters as well as mothers and fathers, they were dumped in institutions run by the church or the state.

"Robbed of your families, robbed of your homeland, regarded not as innocent children but regarded instead as a source of child labour," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said.

"To those of you who were told you were orphans, brought here without your parents' knowledge or consent, we acknowledge the lies you were told, the lies told to your mothers, fathers, and the pain these lies have caused for a lifetime."

Representatives of the victims invited to Parliament House to receive the apology sobbed, clapped and cheered as it was delivered.

"We look back with shame that so many of you were left cold, hungry and alone and with nowhere to hide and nobody, absolutely nobody, to whom to turn," Russ said.

At least 150,000 child migrants ages 3-14 were sent to Commonwealth countries in a migration programme that has no parallel at any point in history anywhere else in the world. They became known collectively as the Orphans of the Empire.

That the Australian government has tendered an apology before its British counterpart is likely to be an embarrassment to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is expected to follow Rudd's lead early next year.

Also covered by the apology were up to 500,000 local children, known collectively as the Forgotten Australians, who suffered abuse and neglect when they were made wards of the state last century.

A government report five years ago found many of them suffered a "litany of emotional, physical and sexual abuse, and often criminal physical and sexual assault."

Last year Rudd apologized in Parliament to Aborigines for misguided assimilation practices that led to black children being taken away and similarly brought up in institutions.

At the time of the apology to the Stolen Generations, there was a demand that the Orphans of Empire and the Forgotten Australians receive an apology as well.

The British Parliament has also investigated, declaring that the half-secret child migration scheme was shot through with "cruelty, lies and deceit."

Alan Gill, author of the book Orphans of Empire that exposed the shabby treatment, has demanded compensation for those shunted into foreign orphanages. He claimed that neither the sending country, Britain, nor the receiving countries, which included Australia, Canada and New Zealand, had shown compassion.

"You're having buck-passing all round, which is extremely demoralizing for those who came out as child migrants," he said.

Rudd has ruled out compensation, just as he did when saying sorry to the Stolen Generations.

Many Orphans of Empire attest that their lives were ruined by abuse and neglect while in care in Australia. Others hold no grudge.

David Hill, who was dumped in Australia with his twin brother at the age of 12, rose to become head of public broadcaster ABC and chairman of Australian Railways.

"That says what a fantastic country Australia is despite all its flaws," he said. "At least that aspect of the great egalitarian Australian tradition prevails." (dpa)