A team from the inquiry has made two trips to Australia and interviewed 66 people who applied to give evidence.

"The witnesses being asked to provide evidence to the oral hearings have been chosen because they can describe the events which occurred to them before they left Northern Ireland when they were sent as child migrants to Australia," a spokesperson explained.

"The majority of these witnesses will provide their oral evidence via video-link."

The inquiry, which was set up to examine allegations of abuse over a 73-year period up to 1995, said documents it has seen have revealed that children were sent from NI institutions to Australia between 1946 and 1956 as part of a UK government policy of child migration.

Public hearings are set to resume on 1 September at Banbridge Courthouse.

The previous set of hearings, which began in January, focused on two former children's institutions in Londonderry which were run by the Sisters of Nazareth.