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19 March 2024

Meet the expat who helped send 3,000+ bodies home from UAE

Ashraf Thamaraserry. (Supplied)

Published
By VM Sathish

Summer is a busy season for Ashraf Thamaraserry, an Ajman-based social worker, who has been voluntarily helping repatriate dead bodies from the UAE.
 
Recently, when the husband of an Indian Consulate staffer died of pneumonia, the consulate official sought the help of Ashraf Thamaraserry to speed up the repatriation of her husband’s body.
 
Similarly, a 42-year old Chinese man died of heart attack and a Chinese woman approached Ashraf seeking his help to repatriate the dead body.
 
Ashraf using sign language, as he does not speak Chinese, helped with the repatriation of the Chinese man’s dead body.
 
Ashraf says there is no language barrier to communicate with the bereaved family members, because they all speak one language -- what they need in such a situation.
 
“They want help with the speedy processing of documents from police, hospitals, embalming centres, cargo and airlines.”
 
“This month, I have helped with repatriation of 13 dead bodies. The summer is a season of heart attacks and many heart attack cases are reported when the temperature goes up,” he said.
 
Ashraf said he has helped repatriate over 3,320 dead bodies from 30 plus countries and with 600-plus local burials in the UAE.
 
“Earlier, I did not keep all the details. Now, I keep a copy of the death certificate, the cargo and airline tickets and other certificates,” he revealed to Emirates 24|7.
 
Most of the dead bodies that he has repatriated belong to Indians and Pakistanis. Dead bodies of other nationalities from Europe, America, China and Middle East are also included in his list of the dead.
 
‘The Man who Embraced the Dead’ written by Mrithyuvin Karam Pidichhu, launched recently in Dubai on Ashraf. A movie is also planned about this real life hero.

The sketch of Ashraf’s life in a new book published by Dubai-based Chiranthana Publishers says he was a truck driver in Saudi Arabia for a few years, and in Ajman he used to ride a cycle to reach his office. Today, he runs a garage in Ajman, but much of his time is devoted to helping repatriate the dead.