The body of Manjay Sada, a 32-year-old migrant worker from ward 6 of Bishnupur Rural Municipality in Saptari, will be brought back to Nepal at the expense of his employer in Malaysia, officials from the Nepali Embassy in Kuala Lumpur said.
An agreement was reached last Tuesday between the Nepali embassy and the Flas Company in Klang, where Sada had been working. Under the agreement, the company will cover all costs related to repatriation, including transportation of the body through a casket company.
The embassy said the company has already initiated procedures to obtain the death certificate, post-mortem report and police documentation from the hospital and relevant authorities. Once the death certificate is issued, officials in Nepal will be asked to provide proof of kinship and details of the person receiving the body. Ticket booking and other formalities will follow before the body is sent.
However, the process has been complicated as Sada, who had been working without legal documents, did not possess a passport. Embassy officials said identification of the body could require DNA testing, which may delay repatriation. Otherwise, the process is expected to take up to two weeks.
Sada had left for Malaysia 12 years ago at the age of 20 in search of work to support his family. According to his family, he did not receive the job or salary promised and initially struggled to repay a Rs150,000 loan he had taken to migrate. He later found relatively stable employment as a security guard and supported a family of four, including his parents, wife Shivakumari and their daughter.
In recent years, he had been working at the Flas Company under the name “Rajiv Bahadur” through a security agency. About four weeks ago, he fell seriously ill and was admitted to Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah in Klang. He died on April 9 while undergoing treatment.
His death had left the family in distress, as they were unable to raise around Rs700,000 required for medical bills and repatriation. The family, which lives on unregistered public land, had said they lacked the means to bring his body home.
Local authorities had also appealed to the government to assist in the repatriation process.
With the latest agreement, the financial burden on the family is expected to ease, although they still await the return of Sada’s body.