Saudi Gazette report ABHA — There are scores of dead bodies of foreigners lying in morgues of hospitals across the Kingdom awaiting completion of procedures either for repatriation or burial. The steps to complete the procedures, which start within hours or days after the death of a foreigner are a never-ending process and entangled in bureaucratic bottlenecks or stuck with other complications. There are dead bodies remaining at mortuaries for several years. Most of these bodies belonged to foreigners with unknown identities, such as illegal residents and infiltrators, according to reports published in the local media. Several sponsors, officials at diplomatic missions, hospital employees in charge of morgues and others concerned with handling dead bodies spoke at length to Al-Watan newspaper recently about various aspects of this issue. Abdullah, a sponsor of a dead foreign worker, said that procedures of repatriation of bodies are complicated on certain occasions. “Normally, it takes two months for sponsors to complete these procedures. The procedures involve several institutions and agencies, including hospitals, Civil Status Department, police, embassies, embalm division and the airline to take body to the native country of the deceased,” he said. According to Abdullah, most sponsors are unaware of the routine procedures and that is one of the major reasons for the delay. “Sponsors have to pay SR50 per day in fine in case of delaying procedures after two months. This forces some of individual sponsors to leave the dead body at the morgue without completing the procedures,” he said. Abdullah noted that there are bodies of foreigners remaining at mortuaries for more than one year. He is of the view that such bodies should be buried in the Kingdom after obtaining consent from family members if they died naturally. “If relatives of the deceased wanted to repatriate the body, then it should be done without any delay. After this, the concerned embassy, together with the sponsor, should complete the procedures with regard to the rights of the deceased, including financial dues and other obligations that normally take a lot of time to process,” he said. Abdul Mohsen, an expediter, said completion of procedures before burial or repatriation of a foreigner's body is a tedious and laborious task. “When a muaqib (expediter) goes to complete such procedures, he usually encounters a well-wishing phrase from his friends and colleagues. The phrase – May Allah help you to perform the task — is very popular among muaqibs. This phrase represents the problems and bureaucratic bottlenecks that the muaqib encounters while completing the routine procedures,” he said. While blaming many agencies for the delay, including embassies, Abdul Mohsen cited one case as an example. “When I approached an embassy to complete post-death procedures of a foreigner, I had a bitter experience. With a hostile attitude, the official refused to give details about the documents to be furnished so as to complete the procedures,” he said, adding that most embassies do not have arrangements to meet emergency situations. “Often completion of the procedures for disposal of is hampered due to the absence of alternative arrangements on weekends and official holidays. We also face difficult situations because of the indifferent attitude of officials of the concerned government departments in expediting the procedures,” he said. Ibrahim, an expediter of a contracting company, recounted a humiliating experience while moving the corpse of a foreigner from the mortuary of a hospital to the embalm division of another hospital. “After completing the procedures, the morgue employee asked me to bring a pickup to carry the body. When I asked for an ambulance to take the body, he said that the sponsor should meet the cost of transporting the body,” he said. Ibrahim noted that there is total inefficiency in handling bodies at some hospital mortuaries. Hassan, another muaqib, thanked air cargo officials for their sincere efforts to expedite repatriation of bodies. “Sami and Yahya, supervisors of air cargo division at an airport, responded positively to many of my queries. This was not the case with some embassy officials who are apparently not concerned with their fellow countrymen,” he said. Speaking to the newspaper, an embassy official referred to the long and complicated procedures that most embassies have to undergo for repatriation of bodies. “The procedures start with furnishing of necessary documents such as medical certificates, statement from the employer about settling financial dues and a death certificate. The embassy issues the initial letter endorsing repatriation of the body,” he said, adding that the embassy initiates the procedure writing to the concerned agencies. “This also results in delaying the repatriation of bodies,” he said. Mohsen, an employee at a government hospital mortuary, said that there are several bodies lying in mortuaries for long periods of time. Some of these bodies belonged to unknown people who entered the Kingdom illegally from a neighboring country. In case of death, their bodies were taken to mortuaries and none of their relatives come up to receive the bodies,” he said, noting that some bodies are there for more than five years. Mohsen suggests that there should be a mechanism under which the concerned authorities like the Ministry of Foreign Affairs take initiative to send details and photos of these dead persons to the authorities of their country as part of attempts to identify them and expedite repatriation or burial of their bodies. Commenting on the issue, Saeed Al-Naqeer, spokesman of the Health Affairs Department in Asir, said that there are some bodies lying in hospital mortuaries in Abha, Mahayil and Majarida in Asir province. “In normal cases, hospitals hand over bodies after completion of the necessary procedures and no hospitals make delay in this. But in some cases, there were delays in completion of procedures, which may be from a few months to more than a year. This happens in the case of deaths shrouded in mystery and other complications related with the concerned authorities like police, the Border Guard and the Civil Defense,” he said, adding that these occur mainly in cases of death of unknown persons or unnatural deaths. According to Al-Naqeer, most of the bodies lying indefinitely at mortuaries belonged to unidentified persons or illegal residents. “This is why none of their relatives turn up to receive the bodies. In the case of murders, failure to arrest the killers was one of the reasons for delaying completion of procedures.”
