Orphanage raided over abuse claims Australian-run orphanage in Cambodia raided Ruth Golder, the Australian founder of the 'Love in Action' orphanage, denies allegations of child abuse and says she'll fight to get 21 children back into her care. Authorities have raided an Australian-run orphanage in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh and taken away 21 children, some as young as one year old. Police and government officials had received reports of beatings and neglect at the Love In Action orphanage founded by 71-year-old Australian Ruth Golder. Mrs Golder, a former nurse who has worked with children in Cambodia for 13 years, admitted after the raid that the orphanage was not registered with the Cambodian government but denied the allegations of abuse and neglect of the children. The Love In Action orphanage founded by Australian Ruth Golder and raided by police in Phnom Penh after reports of abuse. "I love the children with all my heart," she said, sobbing, after the raid by 17 government officials accompanied by Cambodian police and welfare staff from the anti-human trafficking and exploitation organisation Sisha. I will fight to get them back. The orphanage is supported by the Christian Outreach Centre, which has churches across Australia. It receives most of its funding from Australian donors and organisations, with donations tax-deductible in Australia. Children wait on a bus after being removed. Photo: Lindsay Murdoch The 21 children were taken away during the raid on Friday. The whereabouts of seven other children living at the orphanage is unknown. Officials ignored Mrs Golder's pleas not to take away a six-year-old boy she had named Isaac after he was brought to her by his mother to care for when he was 10 days old. She said she was the boy's legal guardian. "They didn't even tell me where Isaac was going," she said later, weeping. The raid comes as the Cambodian government moves to tighten control of up to 500 orphanages in the country that have been largely unregulated for decades. The number of orphanages in Cambodia has increased 65 per cent since 2005 and 72 per cent of the children living in them still have parents. More than half of the orphanages are unregistered. Eric Meldrum, the head of Sisha, said the raid on Love In Action came after weeks of reported problems at the orphanage, including the fleeing of five children who walked the streets of Phnom Penh at night to reach a children's safe house. "The children had reported abuses which the police are investigating; there was clearly things going wrong there," said Mr Meldrum, a former police detective in Britain. This is a big step for the Cambodian government. It shows they are serious about moving against orphanages that have done what they liked without answering to anybody for years. Several other Australian-run or funded orphanages are under investigation by Cambodian officials, government sources said. Mrs Golder, from Hamilton in Victoria, said that Cambodian officials came to the orphanage five days earlier and "accused me of human trafficking." She said she was shocked by the allegation. The visit prompted five of her staff to "run away," she said. Mrs Golder admitted she did not have all the required documentation for the children to stay with her. "I needed a stamped [document] ... I didn't know that," she said. Some of these children had been scavenging in rubbish dumps before I took them in. The decision to take the children away from Mrs Golder followed an investigation by Sisha and several government departments on March 15. A statement by Sisha said: "Investigators found that the institution failed to meet minimum standards in several regards: the food standards were sub par, some children were visibly ill and not taken to a doctor, the facility was dirty, sewerage was blocked and the living quarters overcrowded." Speaking after the raid, Mrs Golder said allegations about abuse and neglect were excuses because people wanted to close down the orphanage for jealousy and other reasons. "There was no abuse," she said. Did the kids look abused to you? The children were carried or led from the orphanage without them becoming distressed. They were taken by bus to a government centre where arrangements were made for them to return to their families, go to foster homes or be sent to government orphanages. Mrs Golder said she had worked with children for 48 years around the world, including Africa. Asked whether she would now return to Australia, she said: "No way. I would die. I will win. I am not a loser. I will not lay down," she said.