DUBAI // The headlines this year have been dominated by cases of western expatriates falling from high-rise buildings.
While the human tragedy from the deaths have taken centre stage in the news, behind the scenes a local company has played a key role in ensuring the bodies of the deceased are transferred from a mortuary in Dubai and laid to rest in their home country.
For seven years, Middle East Funeral Services has helped grieving families to deal with the headache and bureaucracy that accompanies the death of an expatriate resident.
In the past year alone, the company has processed about 500 death cases.
“We mostly deal with sudden deaths,” says Vivian Albertyn, the South African director of the company.
“The majority of cases we deal with are heart attacks, followed by road accidents and balcony deaths.”
The company’s role is to handle the long and sometimes frustrating process of securing the release of a corpse from a police morgue, embalming, repatriating the body, and processing funeral arrangements in the home country.
“For the bereaved it can be a difficult process, because the various permissions and documents that are needed at every stage aren’t really clear,” says Mr Albertyn.
“No one can explain for you how the whole process works overall.”
His company was the first to deal in “after-life logistics” within the UAE, where previously the work was either undertaken by charities or, somewhat more haltingly, family members unfamiliar with the system.
Over the years Mr Albertyn has had only a few hiccups, including flights being cancelled and bodies being stuck for a short period at a port in the receiving country.
But he is still haunted by stories from a different local funeral director that shipped the wrong body.
“After the casket arrived in India, they took a three or four-hour trip into a remote village,” Mr Albertyn says. “When they opened up the casket it was a Somalian woman.
“They had to just bury her. There’s no way you can get the right documents to bring her back to Dubai.”
The service can cost up to Dh30,000 but varies depending on the destination country.
“For a tourist or a resident the most important thing is to get insurance, because the cost can be quite high if anything happens,” says Mr Albertyn.
mcroucher@thenational.ae
