RIYADH, 7 August 2003 — The dead bodies of 98 Bangladeshi workers lie in the morgues of hospitals across the Kingdom, with the Bangladesh government saying it is helpless to either bury the bodies or repatriate them.
Somaishi Central Hospital in Riyadh alone houses 27 bodies of Bangladeshi workers, according to a list obtained by Arab News here on Tuesday.
Mohammed Ali Akbar, charge d’affaires at the Bangladesh Embassy, confirmed the news saying: “These bodies have neither been repatriated nor buried locally for quite some time now because of the complex official formalities which have not been completed.” Some of the bodies have been stranded in the morgues for six months or more, according to the medical reports.
Members of the Bangladeshi community and social organizations, who asked not to be named, blame the Bangladesh government and its diplomatic missions in the Kingdom for the delay in the disposal of the dead bodies. “Many dead Bangladeshi expatriates have been lying in the morgues of different hospitals in the Kingdom owing to delays in the release of no-objection certificates or other relevant documents by the embassy officials,” they said.
Between 200 and 300 deaths of Bangladeshi workers are reported from Saudi Arabia annually. The Bangladesh mission has been entrusted with the task of collecting blood money or compensation on behalf of the families of dead workers, 30 percent of whom die of accidents while on duty. There are other reasons for the deaths and the growing mortality rate among Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia, including industrial accidents, murder, suicide, drowning, suffocation, execution and stampede.
Charge d’Affaires Akbar said: “The embassy has been helping to settle all those cases which are reported to us.” Some accidents or deaths, however, are either reported late to the embassy or sometimes not brought to its notice, he said.
Akbar said he knew of 16 bodies currently lying in the morgue of Somaishi Hospital.
But community members claim that there are 98 bodies altogether, including 27 at the morgue of Somaishi Central Hospital, a figure confirmed by reports in the Bangladeshi media. They also claim that no embassy official has visited Somaishi Hospital in the last six months.
Embassy officials and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bangladesh have denied the accusation.
Dr. Abdul Waheed Khan, who has been taking a keen interest in the community affairs, said that all government procedures leading to the release of the dead body for burial or repatriation should take a maximum of two weeks to be completed if followed properly. He said this suggested there had not been sufficient follow-up of these cases.
The Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs has blamed the Saudi government and its complex laws for the delay, according to a statement carried by the Bangladeshi press. Quoting Saudi laws, the statement said the financial claims of a dead person cannot be settled if the body is buried or sent back home. The ministry said of 27 dead bodies at Somaishi Hospital, only one had been in the morgue for six months as its identity could not be established.
However, hospital records show that the dead bodies of Abdul Khaliq Badal and Abdur Rahman Rashid, two Bangladeshi workers, were brought to the hospital on Jan. 30 and Feb. 4, 2003 respectively, more than six months ago.
Akbar said the embassy was trying to settle the claims of the dead workers and speed up the process of burial and repatriation. But Golam Hussain of Narayangonj in Bangladesh claimed that although he submitted all documents duly attested by the Foreign Ministry nine months ago, the dead body of his son, Mohammed Solaiman, has not been repatriated so far.
Recently, the Bangladesh government has taken a more active interest in the repatriation of dead bodies from Saudi Arabia. The bodies of the workers who die here are being carried back home by Bangladesh’s national carrier Biman free of cost, and the government has announced it will contribute SR1,310 for the burial of each body and SR6,540 to the families of the deceased if the blood money does not materialize.
