Pramila, 31, of Sukhipur Municipality-1 Shivnagar, has spent the last two weeks crying and agonizing. Ramesh’s 55-year-old father Ram Narayan is regularly calling the company and the embassy to collect the body. On the night before the House of Representatives elections on 20 February, Ramesh Kumar Mochi called his wife Pramila Kumari Ram from Kuwait. He told her that he would be returning home in April to visit his one-and-a-half-year-old son Aryan, who was born after he went to Kuwait 22 months ago. He also talked to his family about the future of the country. ‘We should vote for good people and youth in the elections,’ he had said, ‘The country will change after this election.’ But before the country changed, the news changed, and the next day, on election day, the news that Ramesh had left this world reached the courtyard.

Ramesh, 35, of Siraha, had spent 16 years in foreign employment. At the age of 17, he went to Kuwait for the first time. He returned after working in Kuwait for 8 years. Then, she returned after working in Malaysia for two years, Qatar for two years, and Saudi Arabia for two years. It had been 22 months since she last worked in Kuwait.

‘At 7:30 in the morning, we went to the polling station of the community school in the neighboring village of Mohanpur with my in-laws to vote. It was 2 o’clock when we returned after voting. I was washing dishes when suddenly my relative Rahul arrived in the courtyard with the news of my husband’s death,’ Pramila told Kantipur. ‘As soon as I heard that, I felt like I was going to fall on the ground, or rather, I felt like it. I controlled myself and spoke to his uncle on Rahul’s mobile.’

Rahul’s uncle Ramkumar Ram works with Ram Ramesh. According to her, Ramesh was taking blood pressure medication. "He got up around 2 am that night and went to the toilet. He collapsed while trying to eat with a medicine bottle in his hand," Ramkumar said over the phone. "Half an hour after he collapsed, the ambulance arrived. The doctor declared him dead as soon as he was taken to the hospital."

Pramila, 31, of Sukhipur Municipality-1, Shivnagar, has spent the last two weeks crying and agonizing. Ramesh's 55-year-old father, Ram Narayan, has been calling the company and the embassy regularly to retrieve the body. "The plane hasn't left, they say they will send the body if it does. I have appealed to the ward chairman, I have also told the municipality," Ram Narayan lamented in his courtyard on Thursday. "I have even told the older people here, everyone is saying they are taking the initiative."

The US and Israel have been continuously attacking Iran since March 16. Iran has also continued its series of counterattacks in Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman, where US military camps are located. Due to the ongoing war in West Asia, airports in various countries, including Kuwait, are not operational. The bodies of 22 people, whom the Nepali Embassy had allowed to send, have been held back. 7 in Kuwait, 7 in Saudi Arabia, and 8 in the UAE.

According to the Nepali Embassy in Kuwait, the bodies of 7 Nepali workers, including Ramesh, who had all the documents completed, have been held back. According to the embassy, ​​the bodies of Khushiram Chaudhary of Dang, Samjhana Gole of Sindhupalchowk, Kopila Dhami of Udayapur, Basanta Rai of Khotang, Yamuna Sunar of Salyan, and Krishna Ramja Budha of Salyan have been held back. “The problem is that there is no flight from Kuwait to Nepal so far. We are preparing to send the bodies as soon as the flights resume,” said Nepali Ambassador to Kuwait Ghanshyam Lamsal.

The Nepali Embassy has already issued a ‘No Objection Certificate’ (NOC) to the employer company to send the bodies. Only after the salary and service facilities of the deceased are received and the police report and medical report, etc. are completed, is the company given permission (NOC) to send the body. After receiving such permission, all the responsibility for sending the body lies with the employer company. The employer manages the cargo. 

The direct flight from Kuwait to Nepal is Al Jazeera. Iran has attacked Kuwait's international airport twice. Arrangements have been made for Nepali workers in urgent need in Kuwait to go to Saudi Arabia by road. For that, the embassy has facilitated the issuance of Saudi visas. Nepalis who have reached Riyadh and Dammam in Saudi Arabia by road are returning to Nepal by flight from there. However, due to legal problems, it has not been possible to send the body from Kuwait to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi employers send bodies through Air Arabia, Indigo and Air India through cargo. Now that the ticket prices are very expensive, the price of cargo has increased even more. Labor Counselor at the Nepali Embassy in Riyadh, Kabiraj Upreti, said that due to the lack of regular flights, the bodies of Nepalis who died in Saudi Arabia could not be sent. The bodies of six workers whose documents had been completed in Saudi Arabia have been stopped. The bodies of Laxminarayan Thapa of Gulmi, Ramjatan Thakur of Dhanusha, Binod KC of Kathmandu, Pawan Prasad Sharma of Kathmandu, Dulari Prasad Chaudhary of Rupandehi, Jeevan Shripali and Binod Prasad Shah of Myagdi have been stopped. The 'exit visas' of these bodies have also been issued. 

'It takes two weeks to send a body to Saudi Arabia even after completing all the documents on time, normally a body is sent within a month of death,' Upreti said, 'There has been an additional problem in sending bodies as the flight schedule is affected.'

Saudi employers send bodies through Air Arabia, Indigo and Air India through cargo. Now that the ticket prices are very expensive, the price of cargo has increased even more. Cargo has started saying that it will cost about 25,000 riyals (about 900,000 rupees) to send a body. A single passenger ticket is also said to cost 4,000 riyals (about 144,000 rupees).

According to Hari Odhari, Nepali Consul General in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), 8 bodies of Nepalis are stranded in Dubai. Iran has attacked Dubai Airport three times, on February 28, March 7 and March 16. Due to the continuous attacks, flights are being delayed, stopped and canceled. Due to the limited passenger traffic on flights, airlines are not prioritizing cargo. ‘If Nepal Airlines carried the bodies, all the bodies could have been sent, special flights have become very expensive,’ says Odhari, ‘Now all the responsibility of sending the bodies lies with the employer. The family and the Nepal government do not have to bear the cost of this.’

The Nepali Embassy has stated that the 5 bodies stranded in Qatar were sent on March 16. Qatar Airways brought 5 bodies to Nepal on a single day, including those of Sunil Kapar from Dhanusha, Niraj Kafle from Bara, Surya Bik from Lamjung, Bhakta Bahadur Khawas from Jhapa, and Lok Bahadur Thapa from Gorkha. Acting Ambassador to Qatar Kumar Rai said that facilitation is being done with employers and airline companies. ‘There are some Nepali bodies at Hamad Hospital, the process of completing their documents is still pending,’ he said, ‘We will take steps to send them to Nepal as soon as it is completed.’