Guidance

St Kitts and Nevis: 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.

Bereavement Information

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. The British High Commission Bridgetown 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 St. Kitts and Nevis and the next of kin is in the UK or abroad, local authorities normally notify the British High Commission Bridgetown that the person had 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 St. Kitts and Nevis 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 St. Kitts and Nevis or an international funeral director in the UK for a body to be repatriated to the UK or buried or cremated in St. Kitts and Nevis. 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 Kittitians funeral directors associations are included at the end of this guide. In St. Kitts and Nevis 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 cards, dental records or DNA.

Local death certificate

Registration of the death

The St Kitts and Nevis Authorities will issue a death certificate in English. This is likely to be issued within 2 days of the post-mortem. Local death certificates will show details of cause of death. Deaths in St Kitts and Nevis may be registered with the British High Commission in Barbados. 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 High Commission in Barbados and at the General Register Office in the United Kingdom. To receive a British form death certificate, an application should be made to the British High Commission in Bridgetown along with the local original death certificate and documentary evidence of nationality (e.g. British passport). There is a statutory fee, details of which can be obtained from the British High Commission. Registration can also be done at www.gov.uk/register-a-death. There is also 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 St. Kitts and Nevis 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, in Barbados 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 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 St. Kitts and Nevis or an international funeral director in the UK. Following the issue of the death certificate, an inspector from the Ministry of Health of Health will examine the body to ensure there are no communicable diseases and verify the embalming documentation. Once this has been carried out satisfactorily the funeral directors will make arrangements for repatriation.

There are facilities in St Kitts and Nevis catering for Christian burial. There is a local crematorium facility in St Kitts, at the Liamuiga Funeral Home. If a local burial takes place, it will not be possible for an inquest into the death to take place in the UK.

If the decision has been made to cremate locally and the next of kin wish to transport the ashes to the UK in person this is possible. We advise to check in advance with the airline about specific airline restrictions. If the ashes are being shipped (either by air or sea) than the local funeral home would make all the necessary and arrange with the UK funeral home to collect them. If someone is travelling back to the UK, then the remains must be in their carry on and on them, they must have the death certificate, permit to transient from the Ministry of Health, (sometimes the autobiography page of the person’s passport is needed) and the cremation certificate to allow travel.

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. 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, please take advice from your local funeral director. The crematorium in St. Kitts and Nevis is able to host funeral services, you can make specific arrangements with your funeral director depending on you cultural and/or religious beliefs. Ashes are allowed to be scatter a specific distance away out in sea.

Autopsy/post-mortem

An Autopsy, which is also known as a post-mortem, is carried out to establish the cause of a sudden death. Post-mortems are usually carried out within 3 to 5 days from the deceased being placed in the mortuary when possible, however the medical examiner is based in Barbados, so cannot always be available straight away. A copy of the death certificate is provided to the next of kin. A copy of the post-mortem report is not usually provided to the family. The British High Commission can request a copy on behalf of the next of kin, although it is more usually done on behalf of the local British coroner conducting an inquest into the death. There have been no documented cases of a hospital or mortuary seeking to retain organs of foreign persons, either with or without the consent of the next of kin. There are mortuary facilities at the Joseph N. France Hospital, which maintains a limited number of cold storage areas. Most major funeral directors in St Kitts maintain cold storage areas also and, except in a case where mass casualties may arise, these facilities are adequate.

Inquests

In St. Kitts and Nevis 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. 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. 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. The coroner may decide to hold an inquest to gather more information about the cause and circumstances of a death. 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. An inquest must be held in certain circumstances, for example, if the death is in custody. In other cases, the coroner might decide to hold an inquest if it is in the public interest. For example, where there is significant doubt about the facts or if holding an inquest might help prevent future deaths.

Legal aid

St Kitts and Nevis placed a reserve on the right to free legal assistance when acceding to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1973. Therefore free legal assistance does not exist in St Kitts. Defendants may make a case to the Court for legal assistance but approval is rare and usually limited to cases of murder involving family members.

Compensation

As far as we are aware, there is no Government criminal compensation scheme in existence in St Kitts and Nevis.

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 Kittitian 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

St. Kitts and Nevis does not accept organ donations.

Donation of bodies to medical science

St. Kitts and Nevis does not 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 St. Kitts and Nevis authorities via the Foreign, Commonwealth & 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

There are a few undertakers that handle repatriations to the United Kingdom. They work in conjunction with the appointed International Undertakers and have a great deal of experience in ensuring things go smoothly.

Liamuiga Funeral Home
Lime Kiln Commercial Development
Basseterre
St Kitts

Email: liamuigafuneralhome@gmail.com

(869)466 1225 (office)/(869)662 3118 (mobile)

Mackie Hazel Memorial Funeral Home
Church Street
PO Box 17
Basseterre
St Kitts

Email: mackiehazelfuneralhome@gmail.com

(869) 465 4160 (office)/(869) 465 2789 (after hours)/(869) 662 2291 (mobile)

Jenkins Funeral Home
Market Street
PO Box 312
Basseterre
St Kitts

Email: jenkinsfuneralhomeskb@gmail.com

(869) 465 2385

Eastern Benevolent Society Funeral Home
Bakers Corner
Basseterre
St Kitts

(869) 465 3051 (office)/(869) 662 4051 (mobile)

Hunkins Funeral Home
Government Road
Charlestown
Nevis

Email: s.hunkinsandsonsltd@yahoo.com

(869) 469 5489 (office)/(869) 663 1609 (mobile)

Elliott’s Funeral Parlour
Fothergills
Gingerland
Nevis

Email: elliottsfuneralparlour@hotmail.com

(869) 664 2007

$A Hunkins Funeral Home Government Road Charlestown Nevis $A

Email: s.hunkinsandsonsltd@yahoo.com/ elsieliburd@hotmail.com

(869)5695489/6631609