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SYDNEY - Aboriginal children in NSW are being removed from their homes in greater numbers than during the Stolen Generations, figures from the NSW Department of Community Services show.
According to statistics obtained from the department, 12,000 children are in state care, and 4000 of those are indigenous, Sydney's Daily Telegraph reported.
The number is up 37 per cent on last year, and 65 per cent higher than five years ago.
It is also four times the number recorded to be in foster homes, institutions and missions in 1969.
In all other states the number of indigenous children in state care has flattened or fallen.
The statistics were "very, very worrying", chairwoman of the Aboriginal Child, Family and Community Care State Secretariat, Amanda Bridge, said.
"It's more than were taken in the Stolen Generation.
"It's alarming, and as a practice it's wildly different to what we'd like to see, which is the numbers coming down."
Half the children in state care were being cared for by relatives under the kinship carers foster scheme.
- AAP