Our repatriation team can offer guidance, advice and support to anyone who needs to bring a loved one who has died back to the UK or take them abroad.
We also provide funeral services abroad without a repatriation.
To speak to a member of our repatriation team, call +44 (0) 20 8729 0029 or email cooprepatriation@coop.co.uk.
Repatriation is taking someone who has died from one country to another.
This applies to people who die when abroad, or those who are currently in the UK and wish to be taken to another country to be buried or cremated. This also applies to those wanting to take ashes from one country to another.
If you need help arranging a repatriation or funeral abroad, speak with our repatriation team who will help you make the arrangements.
Our repatriation team is experienced, professional and dedicated to taking people who have died from one country to another.
We make sure that people in our care are well taken care of and treated with dignity and respect.
We'll listen, offer guidance, help with necessary paperwork, and give you time to decide on the repatriation arrangements.
Our service doesn’t stop after we’ve taken the person home. We’ll keep in touch after the funeral and offer bereavement support to you, family members and friends that may need it.
You can check our bereavement support page to see what type of support is available to you.
From contacting the relevant authorities of the country you are in, to registering the death and arranging repatriation. Here’s a 5-step guide to let you know what to do and when:
Depending on where you are, and where the person died, the process is different.
If you’re in the UK, you’ll usually be contacted by the UK police or Foreign Office.
If you’re abroad, you must inform:
If you have a holiday rep or you've booked through a tour operator, tell them about the death. They might be able to help you contact the right authorities.
You’ll also need to provide details of a contact person that can share information quickly and accurately about the person who has died.
Check whether the person who died had travel or life insurance that includes repatriation costs. The insurance company would usually take care of the repatriation with their provider.
To find out if the person had insurance, you can check with their bank, credit card company, or their employer if they were travelling for work.
If the person did not have insurance, you’ll need to choose a funeral director in the country the person died in or an international repatriation company, like Co-op Funeralcare, to help with the arrangements.
The death must be registered in the country where the person died. This must be done in accordance with the local regulations.
A repatriation company or funeral director can help you register the death and obtain a death certificate. You can also contact the hospital, local police, or a tour operator for guidance.
You do not have to register the death again in the UK. You can use the country’s death certificate, with a certified English translation, in the UK for things like probate, accessing pension benefits or claiming life insurance.
For more information on how to register a death in a specific country, you can check the UK government information guide.
Things you’ll usually need to register the death are:
We recommend asking for extra copies of the death certificate because you might need them when closing bank accounts and informing utility companies, for example.
If you do not agree with the contents of the death certificate, including the cause of death, you can seek independent legal advice or contact Co-op Legal Services. Please be aware that Co-op Legal Services cannot directly intervene with overseas disputes.
To bring someone who died abroad back to the UK, there are certain documents that you’ll need.
The repatriation documents for each country may be different, but generally they would include:
Your funeral director abroad or repatriation company can help you with the documents you need.
You’ll also need to find out if the coffin or casket can be used in the UK. We recommend you don’t spend a lot of money when getting a repatriation coffin because you might need to get a new one when the person arrives in the UK.
Other things to consider when bringing someone who died abroad back to the UK are:
You might be able to travel on the same flight with the person who has died, but we cannot guarantee this.
Once the person is back in the UK, there are some things that must be arranged before the funeral can take place.
If the funeral is in England or Wales, a coroner must issue a burial or cremation order before it takes place.
In Scotland, a referral must be made to the Death Certificate Review Service (DCRS ) medical review team before the funeral can take place.
In either case, your funeral director can help you arrange any of these documents.
When you have the necessary permit you’ll need to:
Once you have the documents you need, you can start to make the funeral arrangements.
If you need practical help notifying banks and other organisations that a loved one has died, the government’s free Tell Us Once service can help.
If someone died in the UK, you must have the death verified by a medical professional. How to do this will depend on where they died.
We’ve created a step-by-step guide on what you need to do depending on where the person died.
Other things you must do are:
In most countries, your overseas funeral director will return the person’s passport and repatriation paperwork to you when they have arrived in the country.
You might be asked to provide more documents, like a birth certificate or a local burial permit, of that country.
After providing the necessary documents, the funeral director will:
For more support, you can contact the embassy or consulate of the country you want to repatriate the person to.
If you need more information on how our repatriation team can help you take someone who has died in the UK back to another country, you can read our guide.
If the person has been cremated abroad, our repatriation team can bring the ashes back to the UK. If they were cremated in the UK, we can take them to another country.
Most airlines would allow you travel with ashes. However, you’ll need to:
We advise that you use a temporary urn or container and check with the airline before travelling to confirm if they’ll allow you to travel with the ashes and if extra charges apply. We also advise checking with the embassy of the country you’re flying into, as some countries require additional permits to allow ashes into the country.
To speak to a member of our repatriation team, contact us on:
Email: cooprepatriation@coop.co.uk
Family and friends may want to travel on the same flight as the person who has died. You can ask for flights to be booked on specific dates, but there is no guarantee that this would happen.
The person who has died will be taken to the airport several hours before departure. This is to allow enough time for airport security checks to be completed and prevent any delays.
We recommend you arrange the funeral to take place at least 48 hours after the flight arrival time in case there is a delay.
When someone dies during a flight, there are specific protocols followed by the cabin crew, airport, and local authorities once the plane lands.
The process would vary depending on the airline and flight distance but would generally involve:
If the plane carrying the person who has died landed in their own country, the police or local coroner will arrange transportation to either the funeral director or the coroner.
Some funeral directors might include additional charges to transport a person when travelling outside of their typical distance range.
If the plane carrying the person who has died landed abroad, families will need to follow the correct repatriation procedures if they want the funeral to take place in the UK.
Repatriation services will include extra charges in addition to standard funeral fees. Contact us to find out how much a repatriation would cost.
It’s important to know that repatriation might be covered by travel insurance or life insurance policies. In this case, the family of the person who died might be paid a fixed sum after death that can help with repatriation costs.
"I would just like to congratulate you on having the most attentive, polite, efficient and pleasant staff ever. During a time when we are low in emotions and mourning our loved one's passing, it's so helpful to have someone like Fatou at the other end of the phone. She was so attentive and empathetic.
"The process to repatriate my sister in-law was seamless and as smooth as we could have ever expected."
