Children from Northern Ireland, who were sent to Australia as part of a UK government policy of child migration, suffered grave sexual and physical abuse, according to witness accounts.
Survivors have given graphic details of the treatment they received after they arrived in institutions to an Inquiry which is investigating child abuse over a 73-year period in Northern Ireland up to 1995.
More than 1,000 children from the UK were sent to Australia shortly after the Second World War, most from care homes which were run by religious orders.
The Historical Institutional Inquiry, who are focusing on the migration programme which involved the transport of children from Northern Ireland to Australia, will hear evidence from 50 individuals who are now resident in Australia and were former residents of institutions in Northern Ireland.
The Inquiry has revealed that approximately 140 young children from Northern Ireland were sent to Australia as child migrants between 1922 and 1995.
A total of 13 care homes are currently under investigation in Northern Ireland.
