From a single loss such as an employee who suffers a heart attack while working in another country, to mass fatality disasters such as transportation accidents or terrorist attacks, returning the loved one to the care of their family and to their final resting place is one of the most critical elements of recovery.

If it is your employee, your aircraft, your train or your facility, the families will look to you for guidance and planning. Kenyon’s extensive experience with national and international repatriations ensures efficient and respectful repatriation for those affected by your crisis.

Repatriation is a difficult process, requiring coordination and knowledge of various laws, customs and regulations. Every mistake or incorrect document slows the process down and ultimately creates additional burdens for the family. As a worldwide expert, Kenyon can help you avoid this.

Kenyon’s repatriation services include coordinating the appropriate paperwork, death certificates and transport documents for both shipping and receiving officials. Turnkey internment or cremation services for families can also be provided.

A professional, seamless and sympathetic coordination of services depends on meeting the individual needs and desires of families, while ensuring compliance with national and international laws for the transport of human remains.

During mass fatality or large-scale incidents, Kenyon can deploy a team of trained specialists to work with morgue teams or government agencies to arrange for the release and transportation of the deceased. This team can include licensed and trained funeral service professionals to properly prepare the deceased or to work with local resources ensuring best practices and international standards are met. 

Determine the Wishes of the Family :

Kenyon works with you, or directly with families on your behalf, to explain the process and collect all required information such as their personal wishes, religious and cultural requirements, as well as any legal requirements for jurisdictions that are involved or crossed during the operations. Families are treated as individuals and provided personalised attention. They are more than just numbers on a screen and should not be forced to accept group solutions.

Get the Deceased Home :

Returning the loved one home involves a lot of very complex moving parts. Kenyon helps you ensure each step of the deceased’s return is a smooth one by coordinating their return with commercial or charter aircraft, ground vehicles, receiving funeral homes and all government agencies involved. For small group or individual losses, Kenyon can dispatch a small team to properly prepare the deceased, check that they have been correctly identified, complete required documentation, collect their personal belongings and arrange transportation to a desired location. In some cases, Kenyon will be able to coordinate these activities with local agents without deploying any teams.

Escort the Deceased :

On request, Kenyon can provide escorts to oversee and accompany the deceased's journey home. In cases requiring confirmation of identification, Kenyon can also deploy forensic experts to answer family questions or provide a second verification and confirmation. Like other Kenyon operations, throughout this process, constant personal communication is maintained with the families of the deceased or their representatives to keep them fully informed of the process and the status of the repatriation.

Kenyon teams use Kenyon Response®, our proprietary disaster management database, to track all information related to the deceased. This includes all information collected from the affected families, call centre inquiries, government agencies, and more, providing end-to-end tracking of each individual that’s been directly affected by the crisis. As a Kenyon client, you have immediate read-only access to real-time reporting from Kenyon Response® during on-going operations.

By retaining our Disaster Recovery Service, you protect yourself and your staff from the very real exposure to hazards associated with these incidents, you limit exposure to the emotional trauma that is inherent in responding to these events and you allow your organisation to focus on its core business while simultaneously caring for those who have been injured or lost.