Repatriating bodies day in and out
ndian social worker Thamarassery Palorakunnummal Ashraf aka Ashraf Thamarassery is a familiar name not just to his compatriots but also to several other nationalities living in the UAE. Dubbed as the guardian of the dead, Ashraf has been assisting with the repatriation of dead bodies from the UAE for the past 16 years. Till the end of 2016, he said, he had helped repatriate bodies of 3,886 expatriates.
It all started when he once visited a friend in a Sharjah hospital in 2000. “I happened to see two youngsters crying in the corridor. Then I got to know their father had passed away and they had no clue about how to take his body home,” Ashraf told Gulf News. At the time, Ashraf himself did not know the procedures involved in sending dead bodies to various countries. Nevertheless, he decided to help the two youths and accompanied them to all government departments concerned to complete legal formalities. “It took five days for us to finish the paperwork,” Ashraf recalled.
Someone who had heard about Ashraf’s kind act sought his help when a Bangladeshi worker died a few days later. After that, Ashraf’s phone would ring every time family members or friends of someone who died were at a loss on what to do to repatriate the body. “Initially I used to help send five or six bodies a month. Now, it has gone up to 35 to 40. I am getting calls to help at least two or three cases every day and, on some days, it goes up to five or six.”
Ashraf also tries not to think about cases he handles. “Every death is painful and a tragedy for the family. Earlier I was finding it difficult to cope with the emotional impact. I wouldn’t have been able to eat food if I had continued that way. I have overcome that stage and I just shut myself away from their stories and forget everything once I reach home. It’s a blessing that I am able to forget it.”
However, he still has concerns about the rising number of suicides among Indians, especially among people hailing from his home state of Kerala, and about the disparities in charges levied by airlines for flying dead bodies.
While national airlines from GCC countries and all airlines from Pakistan transport the bodies of their nationalities free of cost, Ashraf feels pained to see his compatriots’ bodies being weighed by their national carrier and charged as per their weight. “Air India weighs the bodies and charges Dh18 per kilo. I feel it is a disrespect to weigh bodies like commodities. Let them fix a fee if they cannot afford to fly the bodies for free. But [to me] this is inhumane,” he said.
He hopes that the Indian government, which honoured him with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award in 2015, will soon find a solution for this. The much-deserved award, in fact, helped Ashraf in carrying out his voluntary work faster as most people started recognising him after the publicity he received through the media.
In the Year of Giving, he has only one request to the UAE government, which he appreciates for profoundly supporting the needy. “The government here is known for supporting the needy always, even without giving such a name to the year. I just wish that they will set up a singlewindow system to carry out the paper works under various departments for the repatriation of the dead bodies. It will be a great gift to thousands of families at a time when they are reeling under the trauma of losing someone special.”
Social worker