Coffins. (Illustration) - Maxime Le Pihif / SIPA

A "6-day package" at 159 euros for the conservation of the coffin, "one hour maximum" for families in a meditation space for 55 euros ... Christophe Castaner asked, this Thursday, a "control" of the prices requested by the morgue installed in a hall of the Rungis market for bereaved families.

"It seems abnormal to me that the constraints linked to the situation of confinement and to massive mortalities are imputed financially to families," the Minister of the Interior declared this Thursday before the fact-finding mission of the National Assembly on the Covid-19 epidemic. Stressing that "the Rungis morgue [was] managed by a private operator", he explained that when he discovered "the tariffs" applied by him, he had "asked for a check".

Indignation of the political class

A hall of the wholesale market in Rungis, in Val-de-Marne, was requisitioned in early April by the prefect of police to receive the coffins of the victims of the coronavirus. Its management has been delegated to a funeral operator, OGF.

“The passage of the coffin at Rungis is paying for families. And that is not acceptable, "said Wednesday evening on BFM Sandrine Thiefine, president of the undertakers of France, setting off the controversy.

Several policies were outraged on social networks:

So the new world of today is this: we die alone without a friendly hand and the family pays the fridge to recover their dead? That's enough ! We can confine our bodies but not our humanity!

- Jean-Luc Mélenchon (@JLMelenchon) April 9, 2020

Absolute indignity and without limits, make pay for the conservation of a body in addition to a death in complete solitude and at least a funeral.

How far will inhumanity go? This crisis sometimes and unfortunately reveals the worst # Coronavirus # Covid19 https://t.co/haWlHpSGm4

- Eric Ciotti (@ECiotti) April 9, 2020

The deputy RN Bruno Bilde asked, in a written question to Christophe Castaner, "how the police chief of Paris can justify these indecent rules" and what "intends to do the government to put an end to this shameful market".

"The tariffs are those which are practiced in funeral homes"

"An eccentric and isolated building of the Rungis market has been requisitioned," reacted Thursday on Twitter the Rungis Market, "bereaved families have free access. Our role ends here. Our thoughts go out to families. ” The management of the place was entrusted to OGF, competitor of Sandrine Thiefine, according to a source close to the file.

"The tariffs are those which are practiced in funeral homes", according to this source. Thirty coffins were received there last weekend, according to the same source. The private operator OGF plans a "6-day package" at 159 euros for "admission and stay in a closed and sealed coffin condition", according to a document obtained by AFP.

"Not so high rates"

The legal deadline of six days to bury a deceased being often exceeded due to excess mortality due to the coronavirus, "the additional day is invoiced 35 euros", according to this same document. A space for meditation is available to families, at the price of 55 euros for "one hour maximum", it is specified.

Our file on the coronavirus

"If the bodies were not deposited in Rungis, they would be transferred to a funeral home," Camille Strozecki of Funeral Service 1887, who deposited two coffins in Rungis, told AFP. “For a classic death, a week in a funeral home in Paris costs around 750 euros. The prices applied to Rungis are therefore not that high, ”he said.

"At the moment, the deadline is rather 10 days than 6 days for the organization of funerals" he confirms, and currently a "change in the legislation extends the deadline for organizing funerals to 21 days instead of 6 usual working days ”.

The company OGF, contacted by AFP, had not yet reacted.

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  • Paris
  • Society
  • Coronavirus
  • Covid 19
  • Rungis