Adam Stoaling in Sharm El Sheikh, December 2017

[Pieter Stoaling]

Hi. I am new to the forum, and please let me know if I am posting this in an incorrect place.

My father Adam Stoaling passed away in a diving accident at Sharm El Sheikh in December last year. One of his wishes was to have some of his ashes taken to his favourite dive site in the area. So really I am here to try to find the answer to two questions:

- I have contacted the Egyptian consulate for information on any legal requirement for doing this. Despite me calling and emailing them several times, and them promising a response, I have now been waiting 6 weeks. I plan to fly to Egypt in October and need the information before then. Can anyone shed some light on the requirements, if any? If I hear nothing from the authorities, will I have issues if I simply enter the country with my Dad's ashes? For info, my Dad was a British citizen, and so am I. Having passed away in Egypt, the death certificate etc. is all Egyptian. He was cremated in the UK, so the cremation certificate is in English.


- The ashes have to go in a container. I understand it needs to be negatively buoyant, airtight and non-plastic. Does someone have experience in this area? Unfortunately, I don't know the volume of the ashes, as they are in the UK currently, and I am in Germany.

Thanks very much in advance for any help, it's greatly appreciated.

 

[Maverick17]

Welcome to Scubaboard, and sorry for your loss.

There are some here with a lot of Egypt experience, so hopefully they will have some good info and jump in here soon.

While I am quite simple and not experienced in Egypt, I did find this site for Canadian funeral homes about taking ashes to Egypt. I am unable to say how current it is, but maybe a start to help things out.

Shipping of Cremated Remains To Egypt

• Declaration of Contents from the funeral home
• Certificate of Cremation from the Crematorium
• 1 certified copy of the Death Certificate
• Name, address and phone number of Consignee in Egypt
• All Documents must he translated into Arabic (by an official translator — not the family)

You didn't mention airlines so maybe you have it figured out, but just in case you didn't prepare that, be aware they have regs too for ashes on flights. It does look to me from a quick browsing that the docs for the country will probably be sufficient for the airline also. But it does look like there might be requirements on the type of container also.

Otherwise, you might try visiting the embassy/consulate in person. When I've had email trouble with consulates before, that has been my best solution - although I was not going for similar reasons to this but just visa questions and whatnot.

 

[KathyV]

@Pieter Stoaling I am very sorry for your loss and I don't know the answer to your question but I understand your desire to fulfill your Father's request.

My family just successfully completed a wish expressed by our Mother before her passing. It had sounded easy at the time but turned out to be very difficult to achieve. She asked that a unoccupied cemetery plot that had been purchased for a family member - who had moved out of the country only to die and be buried elsewhere - be reassigned to another family member and available for burial in the family plot when the time comes. It was very complicated, and at times seemed impossible, but we finally got it done.

Would you mind sharing information about the accident that took your father's life? We are interested in scuba accidents on this forum because sometimes we can learn from them, but if you would rather not speak about it, that's fine.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Consider reading some posts on the Red Sea forum (Red Sea) and contacting some of the posters who indicate their location as Egypt. And my condolences on your loss.

 

[Buzby]

So Sorry for your loss Pieter. I just cremated my father just a few months ago. My father also spent two months with us in Sharm el Sheikh Last November and December. I live in Sharm but I'm in the UK at the moment dealing with my father's matters. Not an easy task emotionally.

I can give you advice and provide a boat for you to get to the dive site you need to go to. Best PM me. Not sure how you do that on this forum.

 

[Pieter Stoaling]

Thanks for the advice from everyone, and Buzby for offering to help. I'll send you a PM,