Ottawa spending $2 million to facilitate advice on unmarked graves

Ottawa is spending $2 million for an international organization to provide First Nations with options around identifying possible human remains buried near residential schools.

A statement from the office of Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller says it is signing a technical agreement with the International Commission on Missing Persons.

Based out of The Hague, the organization works in different countries to help identify the remains of those who have disappeared or been killed in conflicts and disasters, including after the 2013 Lac-Megantic rail disaster in Quebec.

Miller's office says the organization will undertake a "cross-country outreach campaign" with Indigenous communities interested in options to help identify or repatriate the possible remains of children who were forced to attend residential schools.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission estimated around 6,000 Indigenous children died while being forced to attend the church-run, federally funded institutions.