Muslims, Jews paying premium for burial

Muslims and Jews are charged more to be buried at Waikumete Cemetery than people of other religions.

To buy a plot at the Muslim section of the west Auckland cemetery costs $1800, compared with $1525 in its other parts.

To have a grave dug by hand, according to Muslim custom, costs $780 compared to $519.75 for non-denominational.

But in the Jewish section, the fee for hand-digging is $650.

The premium on Muslim and Jewish graves came to light when the Waitakere City Council committee, which runs Waikumete Cemetery, looked at a proposal for a 5 per cent increase on the cost of plots and grave digging.

The council put off deciding the matter until the new year but not before councillor Gary Russell queried "on philosophical grounds" the differential fees for the Muslim and Jewish sections.

A spokeswoman for the Human Rights Commission, Miriam Bell, said the commission needed to hear the full details of why the differential fees were charged before making a definitive statement.

But she said the fees seemed to involve different treatment over religious beliefs in the area relating to provision of goods and services.

"Potentially, this could indicate a discriminatory situation."

Cemetery manager Graham Resnick said it was because extra staff labour was required for hand-digging graves. It was council policy to recover costs of running the cemetery.

The Muslim fee was appropriate, he said, because of special requirements for an irregular-shaped grave.

A Muslim grave was 1.8m wide instead of the standard 1.2m.

He said it was customary for Muslim and Jewish burials to be handled by the families of the deceased instead of a funeral director.

Waikumete was the only cemetery in Auckland that provided a specific area for Jewish burials and one of two providing for Muslim burials.

Muslim community members said the burial fees could be higher than those quoted.

Custom demanded that burial occur within a day of dying and before sunset, so this could mean cemetery staff having to urgently prepare a grave, sometimes at weekends.

Waikumete charges all clients an extra $200 for digging on a Saturday morning and $300 for one on Saturday afternoon.

Siraz Ali of the Muslim Association said a Muslim burial could already cost up to $2800 if out of weekday hours.

"We are not going to be happy about [the proposed increase] because some of these people die penniless and the Muslim community has to find the money to pay for the burial and that's going to put more pressure on some of them."

Mr Ali said that when a refugee from Somalia died recently, his friends went door to door to collect money for his burial.

He believed people were being forced to consider burials in the backyard.



Members of the Auckland Hebrew Congregation had no qualms about paying extra $140 for hand digging, said a spokesman, Sonny Beder.

All religions pay the same plot and digging fee at the region's other Muslim cemetery, the Manukau Memorial Gardens, which is run by Manukau City Council. But a comparable berm plot at Manukau costs $1840 compared with $1525 at Waikumete.