Asylum seeker´s family lament over charges of Rs 9laks to bring back body to Sri Lanka - report

The grieving family of an asylum seeker who died on Manus Island say they have been charged AUD$7,500 to transfer their relative's body to Sri Lanka from the detention centre where he was detained by the Australian government, foreign media reported.

According to report which was featured on BuzzFeed the body of a 32-year-old Tamil refugee detained on Manus Island was found in the Lorengau hospital kitchen in the early hours of Monday.

The man's family in Kilinochchi visited the Australian High Commission yesterday and were advised they would have to pay to have the man's body returned home to Sri Lanka, Tamil Refugee Council spokesperson Aran Mylvaganam told BuzzFeed News.

"They were asked for 900,000 Sri Lankan rupees [roughly AUD$7500] to send the body back to Sri Lanka," Mylvaganam said.

"It should be the Australian government's responsibility to repatriate the body because he was in the Australian government's custody."

"They should send the body back to Sri Lanka free of cost and compensate his family for their suffering as they have lost a son because of our government's medical negligence."

The man fled Sri Lanka after he was threatened by the military and had been detained on Manus Island since 2013, the council said.

“We have lost a son, a brother, a cousin and a wonderful friend," the man's cousin said in a statement released by the council.

he Department of Immigration and Border Protection did not respond to queries about whether the man's family were being charged thousands of dollars but a spokesperson told BuzzFeed News: "The department is aware of the death at Lorengau Hospital."

The man was facing charges of rape following an alleged sexual assault of a local woman at a motel in Lorengau earlier this year. The matter was still before the court, the report claimed