The repatriation and burial procedures at the new Humanitarian Services Office, located near the Hamad General Hospital Mortuary, will be provided through teamwork between several ministries and organisations.
These are the Ministry of Interior (MoI) - security departments, police stations and the forensic centre, Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) - department of consular affairs, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Qatar Airways and Public Prosecution, as well as co-ordinators from different embassies and consulates, according to a statement from the MoI.
The new office was formally opened yesterday to provide simplified procedures for the repatriation of the bodies of expatriates who die in Qatar and also for their local burial, if
required.
The procedures to be followed are as follows, along with documents that need to be provided:
l HMC (counters 1 and 2 at the office) - produce the passport of the deceased and ID of the person who reports the death, fill up the death registration form and collect the death report issued by the doctor concerned.
l MoPH (counters 3 and 4): collect the death report issued by the HMC, collect the passport of the deceased, collect the ID of the person who reports the death, collect the death registration form, collect the consent form of handing over the body - issued by the police (if the death occurred outside the hospital).
The MoPH issues the death certificate, embalming certificate and documents for repatriating bodies (letter to Customs, letter to a health department official in the country of the deceased and letter to mortuary). It is also responsible for issuance of the death declaration.
l MoI (counters 5, 6 and 7): issuance of the “To whom it may concern” certificate, cancellation of the residence permit (RP) of the deceased and exit permit for the bodies.
Documents required for cancellation of the RP are a copy of the death certificate, RP cancellation application, copy of the ID of the sponsor, original ID or original ID missing report and passport of the deceased.
Documents needed to obtain “To whom it may concern” certificate are a copy of the death certificate, copy of the embalming certificate, copy of the death report and a letter from the police of the death if it took place outside the hospital.
Documents required to get the exit permit for bodies are the exit declaration, death certificate, passport of the deceased and RP cancellation.
l Qatar Airways (counter 8): here, the “cargo policy” is to be issued along with the ticket for the person accompanying the body.
l Documents required by the embassy of the country of the deceased are a copy of the death certificate, copy of the death report and the “To whom it may concern” certificate issued by the MoI.
The consular affairs department at MoFA will facilitate co-ordination between the office and embassies for the issuance of a no-objection certificate (from the embassy concerned) in order to repatriate the body outside the country as soon as possible, the MoI statement notes.
Following are the contact details of different counters at the office: MoI - 40253371, 40253372 and 40253369, MoPH- 40253370 and 40253364, HMC - 40253368 and 40253365, and Qatar Airways - 40253374. The fax number of the office is 40380855.