When someone dies in Dubai or the UAE: what to do

Families in the UK often hear first from an employer, a landlord or the police in Dubai, and they are asked to decide things quickly from a long way off. In the UAE the next of kin is expected to make the decisions, though they can usually appoint someone to act for them. The UK has no legal definition of next of kin, so if the family is not sure who that is, or a same-sex marriage is involved, ask the British Embassy before anything is signed.

The first calls

Ring the travel insurer first if there is a policy, and the employer if your loved one worked in the UAE or was there on business. Either may already have a funeral director and cover for the repatriation, and a firm you appoint before that call may not be paid.

The British Embassy and consulates can explain the procedure in each emirate, list funeral directors, lawyers and translators, ask for updates on an investigation and advise on transferring money from family in the UK. They cannot pay any cost, investigate the death or recommend one firm. For a suspicious death, a child, or more than one death, call the embassy directly.

Registering the death, emirate by emirate

Registration in the UAE is more involved than in the UK, and a local funeral director normally does it for you. The steps are fixed:

For the certificate the health authority asks for the police letter, the hospital notification, a copy of your loved one’s passport with the visa page, their Emirates ID if they had one, and photo identification for you. If your loved one is coming home, the certificate is needed before anything else can move. If the certificate is not in English, you will also pay for an official translation.

If the death was outside a hospital

Any death outside a hospital goes to the police, who arrange a post-mortem, and your loved one is released only with the permission of the prosecutor’s office. The authorities do not usually need the family’s consent for a post-mortem. The report is available to the family from the prosecutor’s office once the investigation has finished. Until the release comes, no one can give an honest date for a funeral at home.

A burial or a cremation in the UAE

A burial in the UAE is possible only if your loved one held a valid residency visa. Someone visiting on holiday can be cremated there or brought home. A Muslim burial also needs a burial permit, which the next of kin collects from the police with their passport.

Cremation is available only for non-Muslims, at three places: Al Foah Cemetery in Al Ain, Sonapur at Jebel Ali in Dubai, and the Sharjah crematorium. The police no-objection letter goes to the municipality for a cremation permit. A child under three cannot be cremated in the UAE. Ashes can travel home with you on the flight in an unsealed box, with the police letter. If a coroner in England or Wales may need to look into the death, do not choose a cremation or a burial in the UAE.

Bringing your loved one home

A funeral director in the UAE works with an international funeral director in the UK, and you sign a form allowing both to act for you. Your loved one is embalmed before the flight. In Dubai that is done at the Dubai Health Authority’s centre at Al Muhaisnah, which also issues the letter allowing transport out of the country, and every document has to reach its mortuary before your loved one does. The airline then needs the embassy’s and the police’s no-objection letters, the attested death certificate, the death notification, the embalming certificate, the cancelled passport, a UK funeral director’s letter agreeing to receive your loved one if no relative is travelling, and the flight booking, with seven copies of each.

At home, the register office where the funeral will be issues a certificate of no liability to register from the UAE certificate. If the cause of death was unknown or unnatural, the coroner for that area must investigate, and a cremation in the UK needs the coroner’s form Cremation 6. Our UAE repatriation page carries the estimate for the route in both directions.