PUTRAJAYA: The Malaysian Women, Family and Community Development Ministry is prepared to provide counselling to the family members of passengers of all nationalities killed in the MH17 crash in Ukraine if there is a request for the service.
PRAYING FOR THE DEPARTED: Students of Taylor’s University, Subang Jaya, pray at the campus’ mosque for their school mate Muhammad Afif Tambi, 19, who died in the MH17 incident. Along with Muhammad Afif is his parents and three of his siblings. The family was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur en route to Kuching. — Bernama photo
Its minister Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim said the ministry had contacted all the embassies and high commissions of the affected countries to inform them on the offer.
“But this will all depend on the respective affected families as the counselling cannot be provided automatically and we won’t provide the service if they don’t need it.”
Rohani said this to reporters after opening the ‘Suara Anda Tanggungjawab Utama (Satu)’ programme, here, yesterday.
Last Thursday, the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777-200ER, carrying 283 passengers from 10 countries and 15 crew members, was on a flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it crashed in eastern Ukraine. — Bernama
The passengers onboard MH17 were from the Netherlands, Australia, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, New Zealand, Canada and the Philippines, besides Malaysia, with 44 including two babies.
The Ukranian authorities believe that the aircraft had been shot down by a missile.
It left Amsterdam at 12.15 (local time) on Thursday and was scheduled to arrive at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 6.10am (Malaysian time) on Friday. — Bernama