Cremations in Cyprus still far off

[memory man]

After many years of waiting, the House plenary voted in April 2016 for a bill to make cremation legal.

Despite the fact that the law has been in force for more than two years, no entrepreneur or funeral home owner has made a move in this area. As the representative of licensed funeral home owners Solon Melas told Phileleftheros, the standards that crematories need to adhere to require a budget of more than €4 million.

For example, crematoria must have space for a funeral service involving at least 50 people, the cremation chamber must be housed in a specified room of the building. The building also has to provide the necessary parking spaces required by law.

Another solution will be for the state to set up its own crematory, with funeral offices purchasing services. According to a provision in the existing legislation: ‘The Republic, following a decision of the Council of Ministers, may set up and operate one, or more, crematories, either state-owned or in the form of a public or private legal entity, without requirement of the relevant operating licence, but with each such centre complying with all other requirements and specifications provided for by law. ”

In the absence of a licensed crematory, Cyprus funeral homes have to cooperate with crematories abroad.

On the basis of the legislation in force, the urn containing ashes of human remains may be:
* kept in a special chamber in the crematory or cemetery.
* buried in a cemetery or crematory.
* kept in a home or buried in a private garden, after a licence by the district officer.
* thrown at sea at a distance of more than two nautical miles from the nearest shore, under the condition that the material of which the urn is made is water-soluble and free of polluting elements.

Currently, the cost for sending a body abroad for cremation, usually in Britain in the case of Cyprus, is around €5,000.

Most of those who opt for cremation are foreign nationals whose religion and culture call for cremation after death. Melas has stated that around 2,000 of them have actually pre-paid for funerals. The highest percentage of cremations is in the Czech Republic with 70% of dead having chosen cremation instead of burial. Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland follow with 50%.

http://in-cyprus.com/news/local/cremati ... l-far-off/

[josef k]

So it has been possible to build a crematorium here for the last two years. That's strange, as I seem to recall everyone blaming the church and the government for the lack of progress.
What happened to those screaming to be allowed to build one?

[Kili01]

I suspect that there may be several inaccuracies in that article. I know Clive Turner who has been a major force behind this campaign and have copied and sent (hopefully) the article to him. He has had a lot of correspondence with both Ministers and Gov depts. when I last spoke to him, they had offered him a site which he thought was quite unsuitable as it was in the middle of an industrial estate... He needs a larger site, close to the motorway, but with more rural outlook. But there is still underlying opposition from the Church who don’t like the idea, won’t allow funeral services in their churches or for the ashes to be buried in consecrated ground. And what have funeral directors and other unrelated organisations got to do with it? Govt wanted Crematoriums to come under their legislation.
This despite I understand that Greece has built one.
Dee..

[Devil]

I suspect the €4m is rather off putting for your average Funeral Director....mind you a state sponsored facility "rented" out could be a nice little earner for the Government...

It would be a loser unless you had at least 4 bodies/day to burn. The cost of running a crematorium is quite high (rent of land, staff, maintenance, fuel etc.) and I question whether €4m is sufficient with conformity to EU environmental regulations (scrubbing and neutralising the flue gases).

[jandk]

According to Google search the cost for repatriation from Cyprus to the UK is around e3000.

[sued51]

I paid just under 4000 euros for a repatriation in May then a fairly basic cremation in the UK was a similar amount, I'm sure I could have saved an awful lot had I opted for a Cypriot burial, but the circumstances were such that a UK funeral was necessary. If cremation had been available here I would have gone for that and just taken the ashes back to the UK for burial, again saving a lot of money and time/paperwork etc. Unfortunately death is quite an expensive business, but I have to say that Angel Guardians were extremely good at organizing everything with great sensitivity and dignity, as were the UK funeral directors and the whole thing was actually less hassle than a Cypriot burial for my father 9 years ago.

[trevnhil]

We did exactly the same a couple of years ago, using the same company. It is a costly exercise because you have funeral directors to pay at each end and of course the repatriation flight and transport in the UK.
I think the biggest single cost (pro rata) was the burial of the ashes in the grounds of the UK crematorium..

[boycott]

Has anyone ever met a poor undertaker? (I mean met whilst alive!)

[trevnhil]

Mouse you know most of our circumstances.. When Hilary's father died, we just felt that we wanted him or his remains to be in the UK... So we had him taken to the UK for cremation. But I do take your point, it was quite an overall expense..

[mike strand2]

Mr Shacolas seems to have plenty of money to throw around, so perhaps he should consider investing & adding this to his list of companies; Woolworth, Next, Debenhams, Miss Selfridge, Golf courses, etc., etc

[memory man]

Cremation law to be re-examined by parliament

The House Interior Committee will be reviewing the law on cremations which was passed in April 2016 but was never implemented.

MPs wish to review the provisions of the law and to proceed with the necessary amendments in order to serve the thousands of foreigners who are permanent residents in Cyprus and whose religious or cultural beliefs call for cremation after death. In the more traditional society of Christian Orthodox Cyprus cremation is still a taboo.

Solon Melas, the representative of licenced funeral home owners has stated that no entrepreneur and funeral house manager can possibly be active in the area of cremations while the legislation remains as it is. As he explained, the standards that crematoriums have to meet in order to be licensed are such that a budget of more than €4 million will be required for their operation.

For example, some of the facilities needed for a licensed crematorium are:

– Adequate entrance and reception area for the visitors and for placing the body before its transportation to the ceremonial hall.
– A covered semi-outdoor space for easy access to the vehicle carrying the body.
– A ceremonial hall occupying at least 80 sq.m. for the funeral ceremony.
– A waiting room for relatives occupying at least 20 sq.m.
– A storage room and toilets.
– A room for the final inspection and preparation of the body for cremation.
– Minimum number of parking spaces as required by current legislation.

The building complex should also have the capacity to serve at least 50 people for funeral ceremonies

Apart from the above, the legislation regulates, inter alia, the mechanical and technical requirements that the crematory should meet. The person who will handle the incinerator should hold a university diploma of technical orientation with the required expertise.

http://in-cyprus.com/news/local/cremati ... arliament/

[Kili01]

I have heard from Clive Turner now. He says that the only thing missing is a license (to build and operate a crematorium), which has been applied for from the Ministry of the Interior, who are apparently in no hurry to issue it. This despite all his effots to expedite it. Or to speak to the minister concerned.
I think that Clive should be applauded for his efforts, for dealing with Government, is a very difficult and tortuous process.
Could it be that Ministers are more interested in get rich quick schemes with foreign investors for building yet more buildings, high rises and more hotels....

Dee

[Maureen Paphos]

Hi everyone ...... We have requested permission for a licence, however they keep changing the goalposts and as yet up till 2 months ago ...been too busy to check recently .....the government have not finished the legislation which has to be completed before they can issue a licence. Greece are meant to be getting one built this year but will see.

The article obviously is just asking a Cypriot funeral home. I am British and I want to be cremated!
In the UK cremation is higher than quoted here, actually about 75%
With all the families and pre paid plan holders we have or I have spoken to I know on the island 91.5% is the actual preference to be cremated than buried. We are so desperate to have the crematorium here because we want to be able to give the island residents what THEY want and to have the choice, with less costs ...p.s.Boycott .... I am not poor ...but not rich either lol!!!! Pay my mortgage and bills lol, mind you don't get many days off to go out and spend it ....by the time I have finished work all the shops are closed!! So yes I am saving up .....

Clive has been fantastic constantly pushing the government but to no avail ......I know as we did it also for over 1 year .....this year the minister in charge changed so back to square one till September and they are back from their summer holidays.....

Keep watching this space .....as soon as I/we have anything to report .....trust me you will know about it.

Many thanks ....Maureen xxx Keep taking rehydrating sachets! Thanks for letting me know about this thread Claire xxx

[boycott]

Maureen this article below is what I was referring to (Of course no suggestion that you overcharge or use devious tactic's or charges)


From https://www.spectator.co.uk/2015/05/fun ... like-this/

They say that death and taxes are the only two certainties in life. But there seems to be a third, linked to death and as painful as taxes. It’s the astronomical cost of organising a funeral.
My partner’s father died recently, and for the honour of a bog-standard cremation in a far from fashionable part of East Anglia she was charged just over £4,000. Jo felt no shame in asking for the cheapest option (it’s what her father would have wanted — he was never a man to waste money), and so the answer came as something of a shock. When a figure has you imagining the cheeky little jaunt to the Caribbean it could fund instead, you know things have turned serious.
‘How the hell do they justify four grand?’ I asked.
Jo went through the itemised list. Flowers: £150. She examined the picture of the lilies that would adorn the coffin. ‘A florist would charge you 40 quid for those,’ came her verdict. Aluminium urn for the ashes: £66. Not being so au fait with the urn market (who would be?) she couldn’t pronounce with any confidence — but we both knew that £66 was over the odds. The crematorium’s costs weighed in at £852. Another £76 went on the ‘service stationery’, essentially 20 copies of the words to the hymn we’d be singing. Though in fairness to the funeral directors, they did, after the funeral, send us one of the copies in a ring-binder, together with some photos of the flowers and a covering sheet saying that David had died ‘aged 82 ears’.

There was also a payment for £160, listed as ‘doctor’. Eh? A death certificate had already been issued by the hospital, and unless the undertakers were straying well beyond their remit and attempting a last-minute resuscitation, it was hard to see why a doctor would be needed. But it turns out that with cremations (as opposed to burials), a second doctor has to examine the body to check there’s nothing untoward: the ‘evidence’, as it were, is about to be destroyed. These payments, known in the medical profession as ‘ash cash’, are regarded as a perk of the job.
But even those expenses left the thick end of the headline figure unaccounted for. It transpired that the rest of the funeral firm’s services — storing the body for a couple of weeks, putting it in their cheapest coffin, driving it to the crematorium and paying four men in black suits to carry it inside — were costing us £2,865. This would have been even higher if we’d gone for any of the ‘extras’, such as a limousine to drive us behind the hearse, or a more ornate coffin (the white one imprinted with a sepia picture of the Manhattan skyline, perhaps), or the release at the service of several white doves.
In the end Jo couldn’t be bothered to argue the toss. You don’t, do you? Not when you’re concentrating on grieving, and know the costs represent a pretty thin slice off the inheritance that’s coming your way. Clearly undertakers are aware that Britain’s ridiculous property prices have put most people in this position, and ramp up their charges accordingly.
But what about the people who aren’t so comfortably off? A study for the Citizens Advice Bureau in Scotland last year found that more and more people were getting into debt over funeral expenses. A government fund exists to help in such cases, but it hasn’t kept pace with the increase in costs — an average of 7 per cent every year since 2004. Then there are the immigrant workers landed with huge bills when (as has happened) one of their team drops dead in the cabbage field next to them.
The Natural Death Centre (‘lifting the lid on dying and funerals’) campaigns on the issue of charges. Its manager, Rosie Inman-Cook, regularly takes calls from people in trouble. ‘Last week there was a Romanian woman whose partner had died suddenly. They’d been given permission to work here, and had just scraped together their last few pennies to pay the deposit on a flat. Where was she going to find the money for his funeral? No one back in Romania could afford to help out.’
How can you make a funeral cheaper? By recognising that there is no legal obligation to use a funeral director. The law requires only that you dispose of the body in a fitting manner. You can build a coffin yourself, or use one made by the deceased when they were alive. (Nelson’s coffin was made for him by one of his sailors, several years before his death.) In fact you don’t have to use a coffin at all — a shroud is fine. The body doesn’t have to be embalmed, and actually unless people are going to view it there’s little point. It can remain at your house between death and the funeral: nothing unpleasant will start happening in those few days. You can bury a body on your own land (subject to guidelines about proximity to water sources and the like). If you’re using a crematorium or graveyard, you can transport the body there yourself, getting friends and family to act as pallbearers. Wouldn’t that be nicer than four men you’ve never met before and will never meet again?
In fact, that’s the issue at the heart of all this: taking ownership of the farewell you are saying to your loved one. So much of the way we do it now is based on embarrassment. Very awkward, that silence when the undertaker asks if you’d like brass handles or just the plain steel ones. I’d even argue that sometimes our attitudes to funerals are rooted in denial, a subconscious refusal to accept that the person we knew is now just a body, which is either going to burn or rot. Somehow, goes the thinking, if we pay for those doves to be released, our relative will escape the laws of nature. People spend fortunes on burial plots in ‘prestigious’ cemeteries. Why? The worms don’t discriminate.
Fredric Baur, the man who invented the Pringles tube, had his ashes buried in a Pringles tube. The poet Ben Jonson was buried standing up so that his plot in Westminster Abbey would be cheaper (‘two feet by two is all I want’). Alistair Cooke asked for his ashes to be scattered in his beloved Central Park. But the New York authorities don’t allow this. So ten of Cooke’s relatives and friends each took an empty cup from a nearby branch of Starbucks, split the broadcaster up between them, and gathered in the park. After the 23rd Psalm and a ballad from Cooke’s son, everyone did the necessary.

[Maureen Paphos]

Yes there are a few things we disagree with in the UK services .... if ashes are scattered .... unauthorised .... I have said to families to place in carrier bag and cut corner then its not obvious and don't get charged or place in the bottom of a plant pot and place in cemetery ..... Interment costs are expensive .... also the cost of opening and closing a plot is around £1100 alone! Charged by the council! I always said to my kids ...when I die bag me and burn me then PARTY!

[trevnhil]

One of the most expensive Items when we had a cremation in the UK in 2015 was the placing of the ashes in the crematorium grounds.
We just had a simple urn, a standard rose tree, and a small plaque on a post in the ground. The eye watering total for this was 2,509 uk Pounds

[galexinda]

Read on Pegeia Coalition of Independents FB page

Translation: "Law on Incineration of the Dead: Pressure lit the flame by Katia Savvas, 05/09/2019 Politis

The April 2016 plenary session of the House may, after several old-fashioned and objections on the part of the Church, have passed the human body incineration bill - which has been debated at the Home Committee since 2013 - but the law remains to this day inactive.This is because, pursuant to Article 37 of the Law, its date of entry into force is set by the Council of Ministers, with a notification published in the Official Gazette of the Republic.Yesterday the Council of Ministers decided to put the law into effect by approving the issue and publication in the Official Gazette of its implementation notice to permit those interested in setting up an incineration center to express interest since it appears to have begun to press for it to do so as the burning of the dead in our country is now done by sending corpses abroad. But the creation of a crematorium is a costly undertaking that, according to estimates by Solon Mela, a spokesman for licensed funeral agencies, could reach as much as 4m euros due to the requirements and requirements of the law.

According to the law that is expected to come into force soon after yesterday's decision of the Minister, the disposal of a human body in incineration can only be allowed in incineration centers that are licensed and operate in accordance with its provisions. Such centers may operate either by private entities, local authorities alone or in co-operation with other neighboring authorities, or by the Republic at the decision of the Minister, either as a state or in the form of a public or private legal entity. "From correspondence sent to the Ministry of the Interior there seems to be interest in setting up such a center by the British, who even criticize the government for not implementing the law," reads the proposal of the Ministry which concludes that based on the above it is appropriate to put the law into effect to show whether such an intention really exists."
Crematoria Expensive project

For problems that arise and hinder the creation of an incineration center under the 2016 law, licensed funeral offices have many times been placed by their representative Solon Melas. Mr Melas was also quoted in the "P" on the subject, explaining that "the law, the Greek copy, must be rewritten as the required premises make the project unprofitable." According to the requirements of the law, according to Mr Mela, the crematorium will cost 4m euros, and could be done with half the money. A ministry official, however, who was questioned yesterday after the Ministerial decision, stressed that there was reason for specifications to enter into everything (e.g. a restaurant), "and it is up to the market to determine whether such an investment can be raised. With the force of the law this will be dealt with." However there is interest. Mr Melas says his office has at least 2,000 contracts with mainly foreigners living in Cyprus who express their wish to be cremated after death if a crematorium is operated. Today, if one expresses a desire to be cremated, the body is transferred abroad. The cost is around 5,000 euros."

https://politis.com.cy/politis-news/kyp ... YZuZzmcAYc

[WHL]

Even if cremetoriams got the go ahead today, there isnt enough demand in Cyprus to make it a commercially viable operation, I think it was Devil, on here who broke the costs down to how many cremations per day were needed to make this a profitable business, unfortunately there isnt enough to get this off the ground, and as we all know there are lots of Cypriot business people , who like making a few bob, if they thought there was money to be made, there would be crematoriums springing up all over Cyprus, alas it aint going to happen.

[zorbathejock]

Nevertheless if one crematorium was set up and proved a success the Cypriots would be building them everywhere.

[WHL]

Nevertheless if one crematorium was set up and proved a success the Cypriots would be building them everywhere.

That is the question, who's going to invest millions in something that might or might not work?