NEW DELHI, APRIL 15: For the last three weeks, the body of an immigrant worker from Punjab working in Syria has been lying in a government hospital morgue in Damascus. Reason: the family is too poor to pay for the shipping expenses and the Indian Embassy says it hasn’t been able to collect the money needed.

So the Embassy is debating whether to choose the option of cremating him in Beirut which will cost about $1300 — no cremations are allowed in Syria — or send the body to India which will cost about $2000.

This is said as much in an email the Embassy’s First Secretary, Anshul Sharma, has sent to several members of the local Indian community.

“Recently a very tragic case has come to our notice, whereby Indian Embassy was informed by Syrian Govt about death of an Indian national Joginder Pal on March 24, 2008,” the email says. “His dead body is still in Damascus, in (the) morgue of Government hospital, as his family members in India are too poor to pay for getting his dead body transported back to India. We are already trying to explore ways to get him cremated in Beirut as same is not allowed here in Syria. The expenditure on this may be about US $1200-1300, while expenditure in transporting his body back to India will be about US $2,000.”

“In either of these cases, we will request our Indian community in Syria for voluntary contributions for this cause, to meet the expenses. We will inform about the final figures as soon as the arrangement for his decent and proper last rites are finalized,” the e-mail says.

Sources said it’s within the Ambassador’s discretionary powers to release such a small amount. Indian Ambassador to Syria Gautam Mukhopadhyay when contacted by The Indian Express said: “This happens all the time (seeking donations to send a body home) in Europe and other Gulf countries but in Syria, this is a rare instance. We contacted the next of kin who said they couldn’t meet the expenses.”

What has upset the Indian community in Damascus is New Delhi’s inability to help transport the body to the relatives. “The amount of US $2,000 can be paid by many of us, a lot of us are ready to volunteer. But the issue is why can’t the government pay for it? Just look at the way the Embassy staff spend money on themselves here,” said an Indian, working in an international institution in Damascus, who was one of those who received the email.