Former Scientologist youth decries Australian 'forced labor camp'

An Australian man who spent much of his childhood in a facility run by the Church of Scientology told the Seven Network's Today Tonight that conditions in the compound were inhumane and horrifying.

Shane Kelsey alleged that children kept at the facility -- a Rehabilitation Project Force -- were separated from their parents and forced to work up to 100 hours per week for no pay.

“I signed my contract when I was eight-years-old. It was a billion-year contract, which means you're volunteering or servicing the Church for the next billion years,” Kelsey said.

“We used to do marching, close order drilling, things like that. Just because it was a form of discipline,” he said.

Kids at the compound were forced to wear all black uniforms and required to run where ever they went. They were regularly subjected to forms of brainwashing and hard labor, according to Kelsey.

Independent Federal Senator Nick Xenophon has called for Scientology facilities in Australia to be investigated.

“Shane's story is one of shocking abuse, child abuse, it's one of a child being enslaved,” he said. “What makes this worse is that this organisation is being subsidised by Australian taxpayers because it doesn't pay any tax.”

Watch video, courtesy of the Seven Network, below: