The family of Bakhat Bahadur Thapa, a migrant worker who died in Saudi Arabia around two years ago, is still waiting for his body.

A native of Jagannath VDC-7 in Dailekh, Thapa was working as a cleaner at a Riyadh-based company when he perished in a road accident. Thapa had gone to Saudi Arabia through the Kathmandu-based Subash Bijaya Association in 2008.

Relatives of the deceased said that they had approached concerned authorities for the repatriation of the body time and again but to no avail. “We approached the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and the concerned manpower company around six times, but nothing happened. We do not even know if the family will be compensated,” said Dhan Bahadur Buda, Thapa’s brother-in-law. The family are preparing a document that permits them to perform the funeral rites in Saudi Arabia itself as they have given up hopes of the body ever being repatriated, said Buda.

Apart from paying off Rs 135,000 debt borrowed to send Thapa to Saudi Arabia, the family has not even performed his funeral rites.

Published on: 5 September 2012 | The Kathmandu Post