Insurance Policy Covers Repatriation of Remains
 Wire services
| | Relatives and neighbors mourn around the coffin of Hector Ramirez during a funeral service in Pozos, a village 186 miles from Mexico City. Pozos' body was returned from Texas where he died in an incident involving border smugglers. |
A California company headed by Mexicans is selling an insurance policy that covers the cost of shipping back to his or her country of origin the body of an immigrant who dies in the United States.
The policy offered by Grupo SEP went on sale in September of last year and is being promoted in the mass media beginning this month.
Grupo SEP, which specializes in low-cost life insurance policies in Mexico, is the only one known to offer that kind of coverage to all immigrants, legal or illegal, for a one-time fee.
A little more than 20,000 such policies had been sold before the start of the media campaign.
"We take care of all the consular paperwork, all the permits, the embalming, the coffin. We pay for the plane ticket to the airport closest to where the family lives. From there, we provide the hearse and deliver the body to the nearest relatives," company Vice President Gabriel Monterrubio Ortega told EFE, adding that such service would normally cost US3,000 to US4,000.
Three-year coverage, with shipment to any Latin American country, costs US30, and the five-year version, US50.
Buyers must provide an address in the United States and a contact person in the country of origin.
Though initially targeting Mexicans, news of the policy spread by word of mouth, and now buyers include Guatemalans, Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, Hondurans, Peruvians, Colombians and Ecuadorians.
A van that visits immigrants' work sites and a network of distribution among immigrant leaders and churches have been the policy's principal marketing means so far.
The policies, which may be purchased over the phone and paid with a credit card or money order, are selling at the rate of 40 a day, Monterrubio said.
The company will conduct its first "repatriation" on Monday, involving the bodies of two undocumented natives of San Juan Chamula, in Chiapas state, who were killed in a car accident in the town of Temecula, between Los Angeles and San Diego.
The two had been in the United States for eight months, working in construction, when they were killed last Monday. Their remains are being shipped back home a week later because of the consular, health and transportation paperwork involved, Monterrubio told EFE.
They are expected to arrive in Mexico City today, but there are still problems with connecting flights to San Cristobal de las Casas, from where they are supposed to be transported overland to San Juan Chamula. |
Vallarta Weddings
News Around the Republic of Mexico | April 2005 
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us