He died in a drowning accident with his Danish girlfriend. 11 weeks later, the family has not received a death certificate. In the boyfriend’s home country, it took two weeks.
The time after August 3 has been a roller coaster for Monica Syversen (53) and the rest of the family. Undoubtedly with the most downturns.
In early August, his father Per-Ola Syversen died. He was on holiday in a village in Alicante, Spain with his Danish girlfriend. The well-trained 72-year-old had problems during a swim. The boyfriend came to help. Both drowned.
Almost three months after the drowning accident, and more than a month after the funeral at home in Norway, Syversen is technically still “alive” according to the Norwegian authorities.
It is not only the mourning work that is characterized by the absence of the death certificate, states the daughter Monica Syversen. This makes it very difficult to sort out after the deceased. Bills around property and vehicles continue to run.
Many regrets – little efficiency
The family does not have access to the deceased’s personal finances. They do not get paid invoices, canceled subscriptions or in any other way formally ended the life of the father of the family.
In the past 11 weeks, her daughter Monica Syversen has been in contact with the Spanish authorities, the Spanish funeral home, the Norwegian embassy in Madrid, the Norwegian funeral home, the insurance company SOS International and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (UD).
It is especially difficult that the family has been informed along the way that everything is about to be fixed. The Foreign Ministry’s consular department, which plays a key role when Norwegians die abroad, has repeatedly apologized to the family.
– But it helps so little, says Monica Syversen.
She fears that the family is not alone in being in a situation like this.
The family has given Aftenposten formal approval to ask questions about the case. And we have done that.
– Nothing extraordinary in this case
To Aftenposten, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs assures that there is nothing extraordinary about Per-Ola Syversen’s case. It has just been slow in all stages. The pandemic has contributed to that.
«The Ministry of Foreign Affairs understands that this is a great burden for the bereaved. The embassy does not have information on progress in the case that has not already been shared with the family. The Foreign Service has a duty of confidentiality in this and similar cases, » writes senior adviser and press officer Mathias Rongved in an email.
But why is it so much slower for Norway than for Denmark?
“It may take a few weeks”
This happens when Norwegian citizens die abroad, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs states:
- Normally, local authorities notify the nearest Norwegian foreign service mission.
- It may take some time before an official confirmation of death is sent to the foreign service mission. Especially if the death does not take place in a hospital.
- When a death certificate is available, it is sent to the Tax Administration in Norway. Then it is registered in the National Register.
A number of messages from the embassy in Madrid and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have not made Monica Syversen so much wiser.
On September 10, the embassy writes the following:
“We fully understand that it is a burden on the family that it takes a long time before the Honorary Consulate General of Alicante receives the information they need from the Spanish authorities to be able to issue a death notice.”
On 22 September, the embassy will issue a new message:
“We fully understand that this is a desperate situation. The Honorary Consulate General of Alicante has today again been in contact with the funeral home in Spain. There is documentation from there that is missing, but several government agencies are involved.
We will inform as soon as the embassy or consulate has the information. “
But this was the last the family heard from the embassy.
On 27 September, the family will contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
They receive the following reply emails, which give optimism:
“The death notice was sent from Alicante on Friday 24 September … There is now a postal service and the registration with the Tax Administration before the death is registered in the National Register,” writes the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
They estimate that the post office will take “a little week”.
But when Aftenposten now before the weekend contacts the Tax Administration, it turns out that they have not received any death report at all.
There are no papers about Syversen’s death anywhere in the system, states communications consultant Helen Rist.
And now the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has no more answers.
– We will do what we can to track down the shipment of the death notice, says press contact Ane Lunde.
Monica Syversen has the following comment on this:
– We have lost confidence in them. I have no feeling that they are really making an effort to resolve the matter. I perceive that we are now just an annoying case, and no longer people in grief.
NB: On Saturday, VG reported that a Norwegian citizen had been found dead in Marbella in Spain, and that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed this. This article is not about this Norwegian.
–
