Irish officials have begun excavating the grounds of a former home for unwed mothers which authorities say contains the remains of around 800 babies and young children who died there. 

“It’s a very, very difficult, harrowing story and situation,” Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said Monday. “We have to wait to see what unfolds now as a result of the excavation.”

Any remains recovered from the site will be analyzed and preserved by forensic experts. Identified remains will be returned to family members, while unidentified remains will be buried. The work is expected to take two years to complete, the AP reported.

A detailed view of the graveyard where the bodies of 796 babies were uncovered at the site of a former Catholic home for unmarried mothers and their children on the day a government-ordered inquiry into former Church-run homes for unmarried mothers is formally published, in Tuam, Ireland, Jan. 12, 2021. (Reuters/Clodagh Kilcoyne)

The sisters who ran the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home previously offered a “profound apology,” acknowledging they failed to protect the dignity of the women and children that lived there, according to the AP.

In 2021, Prime Minister Martin issued a former state apology after a report found that 9,000 children died in 18 mother-and-baby homes during the 20th century in Ireland.

Daniel MacSweeney and Ireland’s National Police and Security Service, An Garda Síochána, did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.