Unclaimed Indian bodies wait in KSA morgues

Many families in India anxiously await the arrival of the remains of their beloved breadwinners when they die in Kingdom.
However, some families refuse to receive the bodies, complicating legal formalities and creating problems in the mortuaries of hospitals in Saudi Arabia. Refusal also puts pressure on local authorities, as well as Indian diplomatic missions.
An official with Dammam Central Hospital told Arab News that medical personnel are often faced with families that can’t be traced, especially when the address in the passport of the deceased is incorrect.
In other cases, the family is unwilling to receive the body, he said. The Ministry of Health rules that the body of an expat worker cannot be kept for more than three months. On humanitarian grounds, officials often keep bodies for more than a year.
For example, an Indian worker from the Andhra Pradesh state committed suicide in Taif in September 2012. Police investigation as well as all legal formalities were duly completed. His family, however, would not consent to receiving the body upon arrival in India, so it still remains in Jeddah.
Another Indian worker died in a work-related accident in March 2011.
“His body has been lying in the mortuary of Dammam Central Hospital. Nobody came forward to claim the body or make inquiries,” said the hospital official, who did not want to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the issue. “The Indian Embassy in Riyadh contacted the district administration in India to locate the family, but their attempts have failed. It finally became clear that the deceased had arrived in the Kingdom on a passport with a different name.”
He said the name was not known to anyone in his native city. His family found out about the death a year later. They were reluctant to receive the body and demanded a death certificate, along with the police report, in order to fight for compensation. An amount to compensate for the accident was deposited in court. Later, this amount was transferred to the Indian Embassy, where it awaits forwarding to the deceased’s family.
Eight months ago in Yanbu, an Indian expatriate died. His family has since been unwilling to send the required documents for repatriation or local burial.
Indian Consul General Faiz Ahmed Kidwai told Arab News that Indian diplomatic missions pay special care to cases involving death of Indian workers in the Kingdom. “An exclusive section is working round the clock to assist in repatriation,” he said.
Kidwai also said that in cases where delays occur, he personally intervenes to make sure bodies are being repatriated. In cases of poor families, the Indian Consulate pays the expenses of transportation including embalming.
An Indian Consulate official in Jeddah contacted the family several times to convince them to receive the body or allow for local burial. The family had refused to do either, so officials finally buried the deceased locally, according to consulate officials.
Other Indian workers are even less fortunate. The passport of Mohammed Abdul Raheem of Yousufguda in Hyderabad city had expired in Dammam in 2010. Based on the address in the passport, the Indian Embassy attempted to contact the family and found that it was incorrect.
“After two years of unsuccessfully trying to locate the family, the authorities buried him in the Kingdom,” the Dammam hospital official said.
The passport of Kanda Swamy Subramaniam of the Vellore district in Tamil Nadu state had expired on July 3, 2011 in Jeddah. Since then, the Indian Consulate has been trying to find the deceased’s family but have thus far been unsuccessful in their search.
The body of Manoj Paswan of Bihar, who died two years ago, has been lying in Dammam Central Hospital since. Officials have been unable to trace his family.