Repatriation to Nigeria

[MrsT1704]

My dad recently passed away and family in Nigeria are asking for him to be sent back home. I’m struggling to find much information on this. Does anyone have any advice?

I’m particularly concerned as I don’t know any of his family in Nigeria.

Any advice would be appreciated

Would you kindly explain a little bit more

I don't know much about this but surely they need to instigate the repatriation from Nigeria?
I'd imagine it's not straightforward and if it's their request they need to arrange it via the embassy? I am guessing I don't know.

Are you are in agreement ?

I think it would be expensive - would they pay?

And would you prefer to have your father's remains closer to his U.K. family?

Did your Dad live mainly in the UK or Nigeria? If he was based in Nigeria, and had travel I surance, they will sort it.
Flying bodies round the world is expensive (ashes are cheaper if you are considering cremation).
If you Dad had spent many years in the UK, I'd be inclined to tell your distant relatives it's not possible.

Sorry for your loss

What do you want to do?
What do you think your Dad would want? If his death wasn’t sudden do you think he would have said if he wanted you to do this?

@PeonyTime

Did your Dad live mainly in the UK or Nigeria? If he was based in Nigeria, and had travel I surance, they will sort it. Flying bodies round the world is expensive (ashes are cheaper if you are considering cremation). If you Dad had spent many years in the UK, I'd be inclined to tell your distant relatives it's not possible.

Sorry for your loss

I agree

I may be way off the mark here, but I'm feeling as you don't know any of his relatives in Nigeria, that he has spent most of his life living here? X

I’m sorry for your loss.

Firstly, you probably need to decide whether you want to repatriate his body for burial, or have a cremation here and take his ashes to Nigeria at a later date.

If you want his body to be repatriated for burial, you need to establish where you want the body to be sent to in Nigeria - a particular town, for example. Do you know any more about his burial wishes and so on? I imagine this is going to be tricky if you don’t know his family there.

Then I would contact the Nigerian High Commission as they deal with this sort of thing all the time. They should be able to tell you which funeral directors are authorised to arrange a repatriation, as there will be a fair amount of paperwork involved. Then you can contact the funeral director and take it from there.

Thanks all. Good points made. I have had some time to think and decided that he spent most of his time here in the UK and hardly went back to Nigeria. Therefore that fact and the fact we don’t know the family mean we are going to have a service here. There was very little communication from them about how they were planning to have him back in Nigeria which was not very encouraging.

Also, most of his children are here in the UK (he led multiple lives) so we feel this is the best place. Thank you all for your food for thought. I appreciate it at this hard time.