The police in St Ann are yet to confirm allegations of an illegal morgue being operated in Runaway Bay.

“We still don’t have any information on that,” Deputy Superintendent of Police Linton Bailey, who is in charge of crime in the parish, told a recent meeting of the St Ann Municipal Corporation.

According to Bailey, since receiving the complaint about the operation of the illegal morgue, the police have carried out investigations but are to find any information to prove that it is in operation.

Bailey was responding to Councillor Ian Bell (Beecher Town Division, People’s National Party) who, during the sitting of the municipal corporation in February, had raised concerns about the illegal morgue operating in the fast developing town.

According to Bell, it was brought to his attention when he was approached by a man at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, St James.

Bell said the man told him that multiple reports were made to the police and the Public Health Department, but nothing had been done.

Councillor Winston Lawrence (Sturge Town Division, Jamaica Labour Party), in which Runaway Bay falls, rejected the claim of an illegal morgue operating in the area as he labelled the report fake news.

“That is just propaganda,” declared Lawrence

There have been reports of several morgues and funeral homes operating illegally across the island in recent years.

In most instances the reports have pointed to Kingston and St Andrew as the epicentre for these morgues which are operated by untrained funeral directors.

However, the Government is yet to pass the Public Health Funeral Establishment and Mortuary Operations Regulations that would allow for the licensing of morgues.

The legislation should also ensure that operators of morgues are accountable and forced to adhere to regulations surrounding the handling of dead bodies.

Though the legislation is not in place, registered funeral home directors are still expected to meet legally binding public health criteria as was outlined by the Funeral Directors’ Association of Jamaica.

Last year, Calvin Lyn, president of the 24-member Jamaica Association of Certified Embalmers (JACE), repeated his concerns about the dangers posed by unregulated funeral directors.

Lyn was supported by Everton Baker, director of environmental health in the Ministry of Health, who told the Jamaica Observer that his hands are most times tied as the JACE membership cannot be used to separate those trained and untrained.

“That would be discriminatory as there is no legislation. When you don’t have an established law you can’t come down on the people. You have to realise that, if I want to establish a funeral home, I would get my business licence and documents from the municipal corporation and establish a funeral home.

“There is nothing stopping you from putting up a sign and say you sell funeral home materials, but you’re not handling bodies or you’re doing both. The issue is that, until a law is there to say what a funeral home is, and what it constitutes by law — if you breach that the police, the public health officer can prosecute you — until that happens, it’s very difficult. Even though some of the people form membership, it’s not readily easy to push people out of the trade,” Baker said.

The Ministry of Health in 2014 created guidelines for the operation of funeral establishments and mortuaries.

Since then there have been promises of more regulations in the form of legislation to apply structure to the self-regulated industry.

The 2014 guidelines were intended to mirror the legislation for the proposed Public Health Funeral Establishment and Mortuary Operations and Regulations.