MOSCOW, September 12 (RIA Novosti) - Orphans from Northern Ireland who were sent to institutions in Australia had their faces "painted black" in order to entertain fellow passengers, IrishCentral reported.
"Our faces were painted black to make us look like [Indigenous Australians]," a victim was quoted by IrishCentral as saying during testimony.
The interview with the victim, who is now in his 70s and preferred to remain anonymous, was part of a wide-ranging inquiry launched by Northern Ireland to study institutional abuse between 1922 and 1995.
One other victim, a veteran of the Australian Air Force, labeled the abuse at Australia's Bindoon home as even worse than the abuse he endured in Termonbacca, Northern Ireland.
"After Bindoon, Termonbacca turned out to be a holiday camp," the victim was quoted by IrishCentral as saying Thursday.
According to IrishCentral, 66 people testified to being abused in Australia's institutions.
IrishCentral reported that the probe launched by Northern Ireland has no legal weight in Australia. However, it is expected that the evidence acquired from the Northern Ireland investigation will receive wider recognition as the royal commission of Australia has rolled out a similar probe into child abuse over the past five decades in the country's institutions.
