Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Australia will apologize for the abuse and neglect suffered by children, including child migrants, in state institutions over the past century, a government minister said today.

The government will issue a formal apology on behalf of the nation by the end of 2009 to so-called “forgotten Australians” and former child migrants, Jenny Macklin, minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous affairs said in a statement today.

A 2004 Senate report on Australian children raised in institutions recommended that the government issue a formal apology “for the harm caused.” More than 500,000 children were placed in orphanages, homes or training schools and were subjected to emotional, physical and sexual abuse, the report showed.

“Many former child migrants and other children who were in institutions, their families and the wider community have suffered from a system that did not adequately provide for or protect children in its care,” Macklin said.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last year offered the country’s first official apology to Aborigines who were taken from their families, the so-called “Stolen Generation,” saying the policy was a “blemished chapter” in the nation’s history.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 29, 2009 22:31 EDT