(Image source from: india.com)

Varalaxmi, an Indian domestic worker in Bahrain reportedly committed suicide in November, yet reaching her body in East Godavari, Andhra Pradesh merely on 24th May subsequently keeping her body at police mortuary for about six months.

Sis Lissy Joseph, a migrant rights activist who aid repatriate Varalaxmi's body said that she killed herself after allegedly being harried by her employer and agent.

"According to the victim's family, an agent was collecting Varalaxmi's salary and was not transferring the same to her family. Varalaxmi is survived by her parents and two younger sisters. Even though Varalaxmi killed herself in November 2017, the Indian embassy contacted her family only in February 2018," Sis Lissy added.

"The family called me after being contacted by the Indian embassy. Everything was a total mess. We questioned the exploitations and delays but no major step was taken. Her family received her body on 24 May. All we could do was file a case against her agent here," said Lissy, and added that the central government’s online system (MADAD), was not of much help as it only gave 'autonomous' responses.

According to a legislature paper, 7,694 bodies of Indians were isolated in overseas in 2015. Two thousand six hundred and ninety bodies were in Saudi Arabia and one thousand five forty bodies in United Arab Emirates.

In an other instance, the body of Abhilash, 24, hailing from Kerala who was killed in a road mishap near Saham, Northeeast Oman on October 24 was kept in a morgue with a label 'unidentified' and when alerted about him going missing, Shameer, a social worker based in Oman found his body in a mortuary and were able to send the body back on December 27.

"Speedy repatriation happens only in the case of celebrities or sometimes if the person who dies is from an influential family," said Arul Antony from the National Domestic Workers Movement in Tamil Nadu. For everyone else, it's just a matter of waiting to bring home the bodies.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), "A medical report, death certificate issued from a hospital, a copy of the detailed police report (with an English translation, if the report is written in some other language) in case of accidental or unnatural death, a consent letter from the next of kin of the deceased for local cremation / burial / transportation of mortal remains" are required to complete the repatriation process.

By Sowmya Sangam