Egyptian expats’ dead bodies to be shipped by domestic airlines

CAIRO – 3 February 2019: Minister of Civil Aviation Younes al-Masry directed the Egyptian domestic airports to cooperate with EgyptAir to ship the expats' dead bodies upon their arrival and deliver them to their families.

According to a Wednesday statement, all aviation authorities were directed to cooperate and deliver the expats' dead bodies according to the stated procedures and steps. It was also clarified that these steps were implemented on the expats' dead bodies coming from Kuwait.

This decision comes after a wave of anger and criticism which hit EgyptAir on social media following controversial comments given by Speaker of the House of Representatives Ali Abdel Aal over the costly fees of deporting the dead bodies of expatriates.

A hashtag “#مقاطعة_مصر_للطيران” was created by Egyptian expatriates, calling for boycotting the company. The call for the boycott also went viral on Facebook pages of Egyptian expatriates in Saudi Arabia and Italy.

Earlier, Speaker of the Egyptian House of Representatives Abdel Aal said in his meeting with reporters in Kuwait that deporting dead bodies of expatriates is very costly for the country.

After his comments were criticized by social media users, Abdel Aal said during the general session of the Parliament on Sunday that his comments were taken out of context, adding that a fund will be established to finance shipping the dead bodies.

Social media users said that the company refused to deport the dead bodies of six nationals back home from Kuwait and obliged their relatives to pay the fees of deportation.

On January 11, 2019, the six nationals were killed and five Kuwaiti people were injured in a road accident on a highway in the southern city of Wafra in Kuwait.

Defending the company, an official from the Ministry of Civil Aviation told Egypt Today that the company deported the dead bodies for free from Kuwait to Cairo International Airport and to their relatives in Upper Egypt.