Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they have made towards (1) identifying and marking the graves of Egyptians who died serving the UK during the First World War, including in the Egyptian Labour Corps, and (2) recovering the records of all Egyptians who served with UK forces.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission's (CWGC) historical research in archives across Africa and Europe continues to make positive progress in revealing the names of those previously un-commemorated, and in mapping potential burial sites. To date, almost 7,000 names have been recovered and the CWGC is actively working to commemorate these individuals in a manner befitting their service and loss. In relation to identifying and marking the graves of the Egyptian Labour Corps and Camel Transport Corps, CWGC's research has found that more than 327,000 Egyptians served alongside Commonwealth forces across the Middle East, Turkey, and Western Europe. Of those, the CWGC now know that more than 16,500 died in service. However, fewer than 400 are currently commemorated by name, with the remainder commemorated collectively by the CWGC's Giza Memorial.

The CWGC have established that during the war the Egyptian Ministry of Interior sent thousands of notifications of death to next of kin. The CWGC believes these records are likely to be held by Egyptian state archives or perhaps still in the possession of one or more government departments. Although this is yet to be confirmed, the CWGC has approached the Egyptian authorities and is working through several agencies to access the required archives.