Gisborne man's parents wait for body from Egypt

The family of a Gisborne man who died in Egypt more than five weeks ago are still desperately waiting for his body to be returned to New Zealand.

Neil Burrows, 33, is thought to have died in an accident at a building site in Cairo on June 27.

His distraught mother, Gail Burrows, said yesterday that Egyptian authorities were still refusing to release his body despite earlier indicating it was available for repatriation.

The British Embassy in Cairo and New Zealand's nearest diplomatic post in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, are helping the family to organise the body's repatriation.

Mrs Burrows said the latest she had heard from their officials was that a death certificate issued for her son did not comply with Egyptian regulations.

"I'm just feeling I'm totally at the mercy of whoever's in charge of this," she said.

Mrs Burrows and her husband, Neil Burrows snr, learned of their son's death from Interpol officers who came to their house on July 12.

Details of how Neil jnr died are unclear, but he is believed to have fallen from a wall or scaffolding while working at the building site.

Mrs Burrows said a media report published yesterday saying there were suggestions that he had been pushed were incorrect as far as she knew.

She said the report also incorrectly stated that he was carrying $40,000 in traveller's cheques.

Mrs Burrows said her son, who was on a world trip, had "a certain amount of funding" but it was not that much.

The family first publicly expressed concern about the length of time it was taking to get his body home on July 21.

They were worried about its condition because they had been unable to find out if it was embalmed.

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Emma Reilly said Egyptian authorities had not yet issued a death certificate.

She was unable to provide a date for the body's return but said it was likely to happen soon.