Asim Kumar Pramanik
BEHRAMPORE, 24 DEC: Not long ago, a bereaved family of a poor Indian widow used to wait for an indefinite period for the last rites of her husband dead in Saudi Arabia but things are apparently not so bizarre as it were earlier. The external affairs ministry of India intervened to avoid delay in the burial of a migrant worker dead in Saudi Arabia last week, sources said. With the intervention of Indian embassy at Riyadh of Saudi Arabia, body of the migrant worker could be buried at Jeddah which is also in Saudi Arabia, sources informed.
On 15 December, 2021 the migrant labourer, Mohasin Sk died from a road accident. With the permission of his family at Sahajadpur area under Behrampore police station limits in Murshidabad district, his dead body was buried at Jeddah on 21 December this year, sources informed.
It means it took less than a period of one week to complete the migrant worker’s burial abroad, said Motiur Rahaman, a social activist who works for welfare of migrant labourers from Bengal. Usually, it used to take at least one month, in exceptional cases more than six months, for the last rites of an Indian migrant dead and buried in foreign soil, Rahaman said. It was external affairs ministry that expedited things to avoid delay in such burials, he added.
Rahaman said he maintained necessary correspondences between the Indian officials, ministry of external affairs (MEA), and the dead migrant worker’s family at Sahajadpur area under Behrampore police station limits in Murshidabad district.
For the migrant worker’s last rites abroad without inordinate delay, he said, the credit goes to digital India initiatives like the online portal, Madad which is the consular services management system of India’s external affairs ministry.
Information of Mohasin Sk’s death and his family’s request to proceed with his burial at Jeddah was posted to Madad on 17 December while the Indian embassy at Riyadh of Saudi Arabia urged the Saudi authorities to speed up procedural formalities and execute the body’s burial with necessary follow-up keeping family of the dead informed of the development, sources said.
Apart from official correspondences between the two countries, multiple-level communications involving family members of the dead in India, social organizations and a community volunteer at Najran of Jeddah were required to be maintained enabling the concerned authorities to arrange for a decent burial of the dead migrant worker, it was learnt.
“Now I feel relieved that my husband has been properly buried in Arab. But I did not get any compensation as yet”, said Sheuli Khatun, wife of Mohasin Sk.
According to media reports, a family at Katna village in Murshidabad district, belonging to another dead migrant labourer, Abdul Gaffar, had to wait more than six months to bring back his body from Saudi Arabia.
Tags: #ExternalAffairsMinistry #SoudiArabia #Murshidabad #MigrantWorker #Burial
