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he process of returning a body overseas to be buried is fraught with diplomatic difficulties and an exhaustive collection of paperwork. According to Kasler, there are "as many different regulations as there are different nations." Each country has its own set of requirements that must be met before the remains can be repatriated. One of the reasons that New York City has become a hub for the shipping of remains is the ease with which local funeral directors can access the many consulates that are located in the city.

"The Philippines has [only] one consul east of the Mississippi," says Ruggiero. "And he’s in Manhattan." He explains that if a funeral director outside of New York wants to repatriate a body to the Philippines, the director would have to make an appointment, fly the consul to the director's location and pay for an overnight stay. In many cases, small funeral homes do not want to deal with the extra time and expense required and will instead use his company’s services, Ruggiero says.

A significant concern for most countries (and thus, for the funeral director) is the risk of disease transmittal. For this reason, most countries demand that any remains to be repatriated must be embalmed. Embalming is the process by which a body is preserved and a life-like appearance maintained (click here for more info).

Salvatore ("Buddy") Scotto, funeral director in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.

"America has elaborate embalming procedures that some other countries do not," says Scotto. Without such procedures, he says, it would not be possible to return a body to another country to be buried.

Many countries also ask that remains be placed in a metal casket and shipped in a specially constructed zinc-lined wooden crate – another concern for the funeral director and added expense for the family. The practice harkens back to an earlier day – when the only way to travel across the ocean was by ship.

A zinc-lined wooden container, specially built for shipping remains overseas.

"Those regulations [concerning shipping containers] are totally antiquated," notes Kasler. "They’re from back when it would take you two weeks to get to Europe on an ocean liner and they packed everything up in those old cabin trunks. Nowadays, you can potentially ship overseas in an afternoon, but they haven’t bothered to change any of the old guidelines."