Govt. help needed to bring back bodies of expats dying abroad

The number of Bangladeshi expatriates is increasing day by day. According to the finance minister, more than 14.9 million Bangladeshis are currently working and studying in 176 countries across the world. The hard-earned remittance these expatriates are sending back home is crucial to our economy as it has become the country's second-largest source of foreign currency earning. However, when these expatriates die abroad, their loved ones fall in numerous troubles. The death becomes a distressing issue because of the complications related to red tapeinvolved in bringing the body back home. Sometimes, the body lies neglected in foreign hospitals' morgue evenfor months. A long time passes before the body finally arrives in the country. Those who try to bring the body back home have to go through a lot of formalities. In some cases, the death news of the expatriate may reach the relatives after seven to eight days. And sometimes the body of the expatriate worker is buried abroad as a stranger.
Our expatriates living in different countries often complain that they do not get any government support while they are alive. And if they die abroad, the hassles of bringing back their corpse home is endless. Oftentimes, it so happens that the expats' bodies are left carelessly on the street and the airfare to bring the dead body back home has to be arranged from donations. Recently, a student died in China but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has done nothing to repatriate the body. The government has opened embassies in different countries to help expatriates but they seem to do nothing in this connection. We urge the authorities concerned to look into the issue and help expatriates' body fly back home free of cost.

Ashikujaman Syed,
Research Assistant,
Bioinformatics Research Lab,
Center for Research Innovation and Development (CRID).
[email protected]