Nepal to Soon Declare 5,000 Missing People Dead, Enabling Family Support and Inheritance

More than a month and a half after the massive floods in Nepal, the Nepali government is drastically shortening the waiting period to declare some 5,000 missing persons legally dead, paving the way for official death declarations soon.

According to agencies such as AFP, Nepali President Ram Chandra Poudel announced on the 9th of local time that "the enforcement decree related to disaster laws has been issued."

Although the Office of the President did not disclose the specific details of the revision, the Nepali government recently stated that it had forwarded an amendment to President Poudel shortening the legal waiting period for declaring disaster victims dead from 12 years to about 45 days.

Those who vanished in the massive floods that struck on August 26 reached their 45th day of being missing as of today.

Consequently, with this decree revision, the 5,285 people currently missing from the floods are expected to be officially declared dead soon.

While the current death toll from the floods is estimated at at least 1,455, only 112 bodies have been identified and handed over to their bereaved families.

Previously, families of the missing flood victims faced immense difficulties in receiving compensation or resolving property-related issues because existing laws required a 12-year waiting period before a legal death declaration could be issued, preventing them from obtaining death certificates.

The Nepali government has been providing compensation of about 200,005 Nepalese rupees (approx. 1.74 million KRW) for the first victim in a bereaved family and 100,000 Nepalese rupees (approx. 868,000 KRW) for each additional fatality, alongside a separate funeral support grant of up to 25,000 Nepalese rupees (approx. 217,000 KRW).

However, families of the missing had been unable to receive these funds as they could not submit death certificates, leaving them also struggling with property inheritance and title transfers.

Previously on the 5th, Phanindra Poudel, head of Nepal's National Emergency Operation Center (NEOC), stated that the government has concluded search and rescue operations and is "transitioning into the search and reconstruction phase."

Corporate search operations to locate nine missing South Korean employees—three from Korea South-East Power Co. and six from Doosan Enerbility—at the Upper Trishuli (UT)-1 hydroelectric power plant construction site in Rasuwa District, Bagmati Province, are also expected to wrap up around this weekend.

This is because local workers who have been in charge of land searches are putting down their work to return home for Dashain, Nepal's biggest festival starting on the 11th, making manpower supply virtually impossible, according to the explanation.

Accordingly, corporate response teams are reportedly planning to wrap up existing search operations around this weekend, with the exception of excavation work using heavy machinery such as excavators.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.