How can British consuls help? 

• We can keep the next of kin informed. Our job is to ensure you do not feel you are on your own
• We can advise on the cost of local burial, local cremation and transport of the remains and personal property back to the UK
• We can provide a list of local funeral directors
• We can help transfer money from friends and relatives in the UK to pay any necessary costs
• Where there is evidence of suspicious circumstances we can press for an investigation by local authorities and pass on the results

What we cannot do:  

• Investigate deaths
• Pay burial or cremation expenses
• Pay for the return of bodies and/or personal belongings to the UK
• Pay any debts that may be outstanding

Local practice on post-mortems:

• Post-mortems are done as a rule if someone dies in the following circumstances: - suspicious circumstances; as a result of an accident; under legal custody; dies less than 24 hours of his/her admission to a hospital; if relatives want to claim compensation from insurance; if relatives want to remove the remains or ashes of the deceased person from Zambia.
• In Zambia, no organs are removed without the written consent of the next-of-kin. However, small tissue samples may be taken from one or more organs at the time of post-mortem to confirm the provisional diagnosis. If organs are removed with consent of the next-of-kin, the organs may be retained for medical students’ studies.

Please note:- Consuls are not always informed of the details of individual post-mortems.

If you need help, the Consular Section of the British High Commission is open to the public from Monday to Friday between 08:00 hours and 12:00 hours.

Outside working hours, a consular emergency service is in operation. The Duty Officer will respond to any calls as quickly as possible, provided that a genuine emergency has arisen that cannot wait to be dealt with until the office re-opens. Our address is as follows;

Address

British High Commission
Embassy Park
Independence Avenue
P O Box 50050
Lusaka

Telephone: +260 21 1 423 200

Facsimile: +260 21 1 251923

Duty Officer Mobile (emergencies only): +260 96 6 339 271

E-mail: LusakaConsularEnquiries@fco.gov.uk