10 signatures reached
To: UK Government
Ensure all Employers Liability Insurance covers repatriation for British citizens
Create legislation so the cost of repatriation for British citizens is covered within Employers Liability Insurance, so that if in the unfortunate event a British citizen dies overseas, their body can be laid to rest in their home country.
Why is this important?
In the tragic event when someone dies the family are left to organise their funeral arrangements whilst grieving their loss. If a British person dies overseas the extra stress and worry of having to repatriate their body can have serious consequences to the family, both in a heavy financial burden and emotional strain.
Recently a British lorry driver from Wakefield died in Italy of natural causes whilst waiting for a ferry to Greece. His employer stated that because he was not in an accident they were not covered under their employers liability insurance to recover the costs of repatriating his body back to the UK, even though he was still physically employed by them. They did however immediately send another driver to collect their lorry, and offered £5000 towards the cost of repatriation - as long as the family did not tell the national press their story.
With the unexpected worry of having to find the extra cost of thousands of pounds to repatriate his body, the dead driver's family were left with no other option than to reach out to the transport community via a crowdfunding campaign.
The campaign was extremely successful and over £20'000 was raised within 3 days, because lorry drivers and other transport personnel all over the country were disgusted that the driver's employer would not cover the cost of repatriating his body after 12 years of employment, even though they have a multi million pound turnover. They chose money over empathy, reputation over compassion, inconvenience over pure decency and honor, and they chose to leave one of their own staff member's dead body in a foreign country over doing the right thing.
This time the drivers community came through for him and his family, but someone else might not be so lucky. The devastating and heart breaking thought of not being able to bring your loved one's body home to rest is unthinkable.
The transport community would like the Government to put legislation into place so this can never happen to another British person again. A very tiny rise in national insurance contributions will raise enough money to cover the cost of repatriation for normal British civilians. Hundreds of British citizens die overseas every year, caused by terrorists or natural death whilst on holiday, natural disasters and work related deaths. Army, Navy and RAF personnel are all repatriated back home, so why can't normal citizens have that right too? MOD personnel serve their country by protecting it and those at risk of harm in other countries. Normal British citizens serve our country by working and keeping the economy strong.
This petition to the Government is dedicated to all British citizens who die overseas.
Please choose compassion over money and doing the right thing over inconvenience. Please support this campaign and sign this petition. It could be you or one of your loved ones who needs repatriating next. Thank you.
