Child trafficking suit filed against two Australian Catholic orders

Three Maltese citizens allege they were victims of a child trafficking scam by the Australia-based Congregation of Christian Brothers and the Order of the Sisters of Mercy.

The three have filed a federal class action suit in which they say, reports the Malta Independent, that "the Congregation of Christian Brothers and the Order of the Sisters of Mercy took subsidies from the British, Australian and Maltese governments for the children’s upkeep and education, but kept the money for themselves and gave the children nothing save hardship and pain, forcing them to beg for scraps of food and root around in pig troughs for sustenance."

That nightmare is said to have emerged from a larger British migrant program which victimized perhaps 12,000 "child migrants" between 1947 and 1967l and whose origins date to "the early 17th century."