They are assumed to have been detained during Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait or the war itself. Most are civilians.

Iraq says it lost track of foreign prisoners during the uprising in the south of the country in March 1991.

Iraq says it has lost track of the prisoners "Nearly everyone knows someone that's touched by this tragedy" The BBC's Frank Gardner in Kuwait

It also says that more than 1,000 of its own nationals remain unaccounted for.

But Red Cross officials have inspected Kuwait's prisons and found only 40 Iraqis, all common criminals.

More than a decade after the war finished, families of the missing Kuwaitis are continuing to live in hope.

Eyewitness accounts have emerged from people saying they had seen some of the prisoners alive in Iraq, long after the Gulf War ended.

Kuwait has continued to campaign on the issue, but despite the efforts of an international commission and the International Committee of the Red Cross, the fate of the missing remains unknown.