Guidance

Dominica: bereavement pack

Updated 23 September 2024

Disclaimer

This information is provided by the British Government for the convenience of enquirers, but neither His Majesty’s Government nor any official of the Consulate take any responsibility for the accuracy of the information, nor accept liability for any loss, costs, damage or expense which you might suffer as a result of relying on the information supplied. It is not a substitute for obtaining your own legal advice.

Information source: consular guidance and local information

The death of a relative or a friend is always a distressing experience. When the death occurs overseas, family and friends can feel additional distress as they are unfamiliar with procedures abroad. You may be uncertain about what to do next or who to contact for advice. British High Commission Bridgetown in Barbados is ready to assist and provide advice where they can. We offer help which is appropriate to the individual circumstances of each case. We will make an assessment of the needs you have, based on who you are, where you are, and the support available to you. Our assessment will help us define the type of support that we can offer.

Whilst care has been taken in compiling these notes, no legal liability for their contents is accepted by the British High Commission or HM Government. The use of the terms body, body parts, remains, deceased etc. are not meant to offend you in any way. We realise that we are referring to your loved one and we mean no disrespect to the person you have lost.

Standard Procedures – what happens when someone dies

When someone dies in Dominica and the next of kin is in the UK or abroad, local authorities normally notify the British High Commission Bridgetown that the person has died, and they will do whatever they can to trace the next of kin as soon as possible and would ask the UK police to pass on the sad news. However you might also be notified about the death directly by someone else, for example a doctor, a social worker or a police officer. In Dominica the seniority of next of kin is usually as follows:

• spouse/partner/civil partner
• adult child (over 18 years old)
• parent
• adult sibling (over 18 years old)
• an adult with sufficient relationship to the deceased
• an ex-partner is not regarded as next of kin

A relative or a formally appointed representative must instruct a local funeral director in Dominica or an international funeral director in the UK for a body to be repatriated to the UK or buried or cremated locally. However if the deceased was insured you should immediately contact the insurance company to establish if they are able to cover for the repatriation expenses and make the necessary arrangements. You may need the insurance policy number and the associated 24hr medical emergency contact number to do this. If the travel insurance company confirm that there is a current policy, you should not appoint your own funeral director or be pressurised by local funeral agencies to do so. It will be the insurance company that will appoint the funeral director both locally and in the UK. If there is no insurance cover, unfortunately funds for repatriation or burial will need to be met by the family. The British High Commission Bridgetown does not have budgets to meet these costs. A list of UK funeral directors and the major Dominican funeral directors associations are included at the end of this guide. In Dominica it is not normally necessary for the deceased to be identified by the next of kin. Identification can be carried out by means of documentation such as a passport or driving licence or by fingerprints, identification card, dental records or DNA.

Local death certificate

Registration of the death

The Dominican authorities will issue a death certificate in English. This is likely to be issued within 2 days of the post-mortem. The local death certificate will be accepted in the UK.

Deaths in Dominica may be registered with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office in the UK. This form of death registration is not compulsory. However, the advantages are that a) you will have a British form of a death certificate b) a permanent and accessible record of the death will be kept at the General Register Office in the United Kingdom.

To receive a British form death certificate, an application should be made online at www.gov.uk/register-a-death. There is a statutory fee for this which is payable online when making the application.

Although not obligatory, it is possible to register the death of a British national who has died in Dominica with UK authorities. Full information on how to apply for the registration of a death is available at this link: https://www.gov.uk/register-a-death

British passport cancellation

In order to avoid identity fraud a deceased person’s passport should be sent to the British High Commission Bridgetown together with the death certificate and D01 form or direct to HM Passport Office in the UK. The form can be obtained on the link below. Next of kin can request the passport to be returned after cancellation. Likewise, if the passport has been lost or mislaid, relatives should get in contact with either the nearest Consulate or passport office for instructions on reporting the loss of the passport.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/what-to-do-with-a-passport-when-the-passport-holder-has-died

Repatriation

If the deceased was covered by travel insurance, the insurance company will normally have a standing agreement with an international funeral director in the UK to arrange repatriation. If the deceased was not covered by insurance, you will need to appoint a local undertaker in Dominica or an international funeral director in the UK. The majority of undertakers in Dominica are equipped to carry out repatriation procedures and will provide full information about the process. Although the undertaker cannot begin preparing the body until the local coroner has released the body, the funeral director can provide guidance and can organise the necessary Dominican documents. Embalming, which is a more complicated procedure, is optional and is more expensive. Please note that in the case of a sudden death, when a UK Coroner might request an autopsy in the UK, embalming might hinder some of the autopsy results.

If the decision has been made to cremate the body, it should be noted that Dominica does NOT do cremations. If a body must be cremated, then it will be shipped to either Barbados or St. Lucia and the procedure will be completed there.

Clothing and personal belongings

The International funeral directors do not accept personal effects as a matter of course. The Directors will arrange for the deceased to be repatriated in the clothes they were wearing. In the case of a tourist with no accompanying companion or friends, the hotel will usually be asked to liaise and return personal effects to the next of kin. Personal effects sometimes follow the body however; to avoid potential issues with unaccompanied luggage, FedEx is worth considering. If there is an investigation into the death, the deceased’s clothing can be retained as evidence and is not returned until the court case is finished.

Local burial

If you choose a local burial, you will need to instruct a local funeral director and they can make the necessary arrangements with either a private of government owned cemetery. A ceremony can be organised by the funeral director or a registered celebrant. You can make specific arrangements depending on your cultural and/or religious beliefs.

Local cremation

If you are thinking of arranging a local cremation, then it should be noted that cremations are not performed in Dominica. For a cremation to take place the body must be shipped to either Barbados or St. Lucia for this procedure to take place. Ashes are allowed to be scatter in certain parts of Dominica, but permission must be granted from the local authorises and the Environmental Health Department. Ashes are allowed to be scattered at sea, a certain distance from the shore.

Autopsy/post-mortem

An autopsy, which is also known as a Post-mortem, is normally performed in all cases and certainly when the death is not by natural causes. A doctor in a state hospital may also request a post-mortem for a death by natural causes when the cause of death is unclear.

Post-mortems are carried out by forensic doctors appointed by the hospital or by the court sometimes called pathologists. During a post-mortem, small tissue samples and organs may be removed and retained for testing, including toxicological studies. This is done in order to better understand the cause of death and to evaluate any decease or injury that might be present. It can be crucial to establish cause of death in cases where criminal or civil legal procedures may eventuate. It is possible for the next of kin to object to an autopsy taking place or to request an external only or partial autopsy. The coroner will take into account cultural or religious sensitivities. Coronial staff will often contact next of kin to explain the need for an autopsy and to inform them of the possible complications in the event that one is not undertaken. This can result in a death certificate having limited information as to cause of death which can impact on matters involving travel insurance and estate settlement. In the case of a homicide the coroners in Dominica will override such requests and proceed.

In some cases it may be necessary to have a further autopsy in the UK even though one has been carried out overseas and, when repatriation is to England or Wales, it is probable that the coroner will wish to hold an inquest. There are mortuary facilities at the Princess Margaret Hospital, which maintains a limited number of cold storage areas. The major funeral directors in Dominica maintain cold storage areas also and, except in a case where mass casualties may arise, these facilities are adequate.

Inquests

In Dominica a coroner, usually a magistrate, will investigate deaths that are ‘unnatural’ such as accidents, suicides or homicides; deaths that have occurred in prison or in care, or have unknown causes. A coroner will investigate the circumstances surrounding the death to find out the identity of the deceased person, when and where they died, how they died and the medical cause of death. In the event of a suspicious death, the Police will carry out any preliminary investigations. If they are unable to establish a criminal cause of the death, a magistrate will order a coroner’s inquest. Coroner’s inquests can be slow and, in certain cases, can take up to two years before they are completed. The coroner will compile a report. This is not usually provided to the family, but the British High Commission may request a copy on their behalf. If the Police believe criminal activity is involved they will complete the investigation and pass the file to the Director of Public Prosecutions Office (DPP).

Compensation

As far as we are aware, there is no Government criminal compensation scheme in existence in Dominica.

Release of information

Access to information concerning a death is restricted until a Coroner has reviewed the evidence such as post-mortem and police reports. The Dominican authorities will usually not provide this information directly to next of kin, or to third parties, including our Consulates, until after the conclusion of the preliminary investigation. The release of any information will usually take several months and in some more complicated instances, years.

Organ donation

Dominica does not accept organs for donation.

Donation of bodies to medical science

Dominica does not currently accept bodies for medical science.

UK coroners

The Coroner in England and Wales is obliged by law to hold an inquest into the cause of any unnatural or violent death of a person whose remains lie in his or her area, even if the death occurred overseas and a post-mortem has already been carried out before repatriation of the remains to the UK. Coroners may order a second post mortem (i.e. subsequent to the first post mortem carried out abroad), as part of the inquest and it is at this stage that families are often made aware that organs have been removed and not replaced. Coroners can request copies of post-mortem and police reports from the Dominican authorities via the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. However, these will only be provided once any judicial proceedings are completed. In some instances this can take many months. UK coroners can compel witnesses to give evidence from England and Wales but not from abroad.

In Scotland, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) deals with the investigation of all sudden, suspicious, accidental, unexpected and unexplained deaths which occur in Scotland. However, the COPFS does not have the jurisdiction to investigate deaths that occur outside Scotland apart from in a few limited circumstances. Generally, those circumstances include terrorism, cases where the death may have been caused in Scotland but the person died outside Scotland and cases where the death was as a result of murder or culpable homicide caused by another British citizen or subject.

Coroners in Northern Ireland are not obliged to hold an inquest into cause of death. However, next of kin can apply for a judicial review if no inquest is held. There will be no Coroner’s inquest when the remains are buried or cremated locally. Further information about the role of UK Coroners is available on the FCDO publication: Guide for Bereaved Families.

Local funeral homes

Lyndhurst Funeral Home is the main undertaker handling repatriations to the United Kingdom via their funeral home’s head office in Barbados. They work in conjunction with the appointed International Undertakers (Rowland Brothers, Keynons or the Co-Op), and have a great deal of experience in ensuring things go smoothly.

Mr. John M. Jno. Baptiste
Lyndhurst Funeral Home
Rock-a-way
Canefield
P.O.Box 499
Roseau
Dominica

Tel: (767) 449-1800 (ofc) Tel: (767) 449-1086 (home) Tel: (767) 275-1210 (mobile)

Email: lyndhurstfuneralhome@gmail.com

Peter Griffith
Lyndhurst Funeral Home
Passage Road
St Michael
Barbados

Tel: (246) 232 0450 (mobile)

Email: Lyndhurst@caribsurf.com

A list of International Funeral Directors is available on request from the British High Commission.