Inquiry begins child migrant hearings

UTV
September 1, 2014

http://www.u.tv/News/Inquiry-begins-child-migrant-hearings/a0e3185f-ce6a-4b31-946e-bfe42c1504cd

The Historical Abuse Inquiry resumes on Monday morning.

Public hearings on child migrants sent from Northern Ireland institutions to Australia have begun on Monday as the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry resumes.

The hearings will last for three weeks, during which evidence will be heard from 50 people who are now living in Australia.

They are all former residents of institutions in Northern Ireland and were sent to the country as part of a child migration programme.

The inquiry, which is chaired by retired High Court judge Sir Anthony Hart, is limited to what happened to children in institutions in Northern Ireland and does not have the power to investigate what befell migrants in Australian institutions.

However, Sir Anthony added: "That does not mean that their accounts of their experiences in Australia will be swept under the carpet. I want to assure them that will not be the case."

Statements will be furnished to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Australia.

The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry was formally established in January 2013 by the Northern Ireland Executive. It has a remit to investigate child abuse which occurred in residential institutions in Northern Ireland over a 73-year period up to 1995.

In total, the Inquiry is expected to hear from more than 300 witnesses during the course of the public evidence sessions.

Hearings and all investigative work is required to be completed by mid-summer 2015, with a report to be submitted to the Northern Ireland Executive by 18 January 2016 - although Sir Anthony Hart has asked the First and deputy First Ministers for an extension of one year.

To date, 523 individuals have made a formal application to speak to the Inquiry or its Acknowledgement Forum.

People currently living in Northern Ireland make up 330 of those applications.

There has also been 92 applications from Great Britain, 26 from the Republic of Ireland and 10 from other countries.

The Inquiry's Acknowledgement Forum has now met with 416 applicants.

A total of 13 institutions in Northern Ireland are currently under investigation by the Inquiry in relation to allegations of historical institutional abuse and/or neglect.

The inquiry has heard a litany of allegations from former residents at Londonderry homes run by Sisters of Nazareth nuns, including that children were made to eat their own vomit and bathe in disinfectant.

They claimed they were beaten for bedwetting and had soiled sheets placed on their heads to humiliate them, witnesses told public hearings earlier this year.