RIYADH – Labor officials will have the right to deny recruitment visas to employers who delay the burial or repatriation of the bodies of employees who die while in the Kingdom, said Abdul Aziz Al-Salem, head of the Committee for Burial and Repatriation at the Riyadh governorate. He said the task of the morgues at hospitals is to store bodies until they are buried or repatriated. He said the committee visited 18 morgues in government hospitals in Riyadh over the few past months, including the one at Al-Aflaj Hospital. It also visited a police station on Tuesday to understand why some bodies were taking so long to be buried or repatriated. He said the committee met with the employees responsible for the morgues and supplied them with guidelines on how to deal with unidentified and unclaimed bodies. Al-Salem said during its tour the committee helped bury some bodies that had been lying in morgues for a long time. He added that regulations stipulate bodies can only be stored for a maximum of two months before they are buried or repatriated.
