A GRIEVING Sarawak family was hugely relieved after Women, Family and Community Development Minister Nancy Shukri said she would spearhead arrangements to repatriate the body of their daughter, 30-year-old factory worker Nur Haslinda Abdullah, who died on December 26 in South Korea. 

The Santubong MP is picking up the repatriation costs and has forked out about RM31,000 as advance payment to cover hospital costs in South Korea. She is also helping to expedite funeral arrangements.  

Nancy’s office stated that the money had been passed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Haslinda’s body is expected to arrive home on January 4 for burial in her home village of Kampung Sejingkat, some 22km from Kuching. 

Nancy said she made the advance payment as any delay could escalate repatriation costs. 

Donations to Haslinda’s family from family members and a generous public only reached RM50,000, insufficient to meet the repatriation costs. 

“Our prayers have been answered,” Haslinda’s father, Abdullah Mat, 64, said after being told by Malaysian Embassy officials in Seoul that his daughter’s body would be sent home for burial. 

Due to the costs of bringing the body home, the family had resigned themselves to burying their daughter in South Korea. 

Abdullah had reportedly signed the authorisation giving the embassy permission to bury her there. 

Haslinda, the fourth of six siblings, died while being rushed to Cheongju Hospital. 

She is believed to have suffered a heart attack.  

She underwent heart surgery about 10 years ago for a hole in her heart and had complained to her brother Abdul Hafiz Abdullah about her health just before she died. 

Her body will be held at the Cheongju Hospital until it is flown home. – December 28, 2023.