Grieving Vietnamese families want bodies returned
A woman prays at an altar with an image of Pham Thi Tra My, a victim of 39 deaths in a truck container in UK, at her home in Ha Tinh province, Vietnam, on October 27, 2019.
Tradition in Vietnam dictates that the dead should be buried within three days but Nguyen Dinh Gia is still waiting for his son’s body to come home.
“We are tired. We want our child back as soon as possible,” said Gia whose son, Luong, was one of 39 Vietnamese who died in the back of a truck in Britain around three weeks ago.
British police have charged two people with manslaughter over the incident. The youngest of the victims, most of whom had left poorer rural villages in search of work, was 15.
In Vietnam, the families of the victims have been plagued by confusion and anguish over how to get the bodies home.
Rumours about high costs circulating on social media, conflicting information from local authorities and a partial blackout of news in Vietnam’s tightly controlled media have all contributed to the uncertainty.
Six families said that they had been expecting to receive the bodies of the dead but were later asked by Vietnamese police to agree that their children’s remains be cremated instead.
Last week, Gia signed a form granting permission for Luong’s body to be repatriated. The next day, police encouraged him to opt for his son’s ashes instead.
“I was told the original form, including the option to repatriate Luong’s body, was no longer valid,” said Gia.
Exhausted and seeking closure, Gia agreed for his son’s body to be cremated.
The family of Pham Thi Tra My, who sent an emotional text message to her parents warning in her dying moments that she couldn’t breathe, has asked local authorities to nullify their agreement to have her cremated.
“I want to see my sister one more time before we bury her,” said Pham Manh Cuong, Tra My’s brother.
Britain’s Embassy in Hanoi said the Vietnamese government was leading efforts to repatriate the remains.
An important event at Vietnamese funerals is the act of walking around the body of the deceased, so that family members can bid a final farewell.
And for most, including in the provinces of Ha Tinh and Nghe An from which most of the victims left on their fatal journey, the dead should be buried within three days.
“We had to persuade the families to accept that the remains be cremated, even though we know they’d rather have the bodies,” said a senior official in Ha Tinh.
