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I read on https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/01/16/ramesses-ii-passport/ (mirror):

However, in order for Ramesses’ mummy to be transported to France, the long-deceased pharaoh needed to have a valid passport. At that time, French laws dictated that all persons, dead or alive, needed to have valid identification documents in order to legally enter France.

Do deceased persons still need to have valid identification documents in order to legally enter France?

Franck Dernoncourt
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    Well, otherwise it would be a very complicated legal situation if the person was to resucitate. Now seriously, I would expect some documentation will be needed to be attached to a coffin, at the very least a certificate of defunction. – SJuan76 Sep 30 '18 at 19:31
  • Otherwise "playing dead" would be a way to enter a country without documentation. – Weather Vane Sep 30 '18 at 19:44
  • From the article it sounds like French laws required more than a death certificate. – Franck Dernoncourt Sep 30 '18 at 19:46
  • Transporting a corpose in or out of a country is often a quite complex issue with lots of red tape. IIRC, in France, there used to be a requirement (maybe there still is), that you needed special authorisation to even transport a corpse to a different département. I however doubt a passport was actually needed, but there certainly was a need for quite a bit of paperwork. – jcaron Sep 30 '18 at 22:07
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    Not if cremated. – Max Jasper Oct 01 '18 at 00:01
  • Ripley's says it was Egypt that required Rameses II to have a passport, not France. I can't find any authoritative sources either way. – Michael Hampton May 20 '19 at 00:12

1 Answers1

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Short answer:

yes, but it is a special passport (may possibly be) called
Mortuary (or Corpse) Passport (or only Pass)
(French: laissez-passer mortuaire, German: Leichenpaß)

The English expression used in the second treaty uses the French term (without mortuaire) .

Full answer:

There are two international conventions defining how a corpse should be transported between countries:

  • 1932-02-10 Berlin
  • 1973-10-26 Strassburg

The second convention is a simplified version of the first.

France has signed both, Egypt has signed only the first.

Further details can be found here:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agreement_on_the_Transfer_of_Corpses

The French / German text of the first treaty can be found here:
(the present wiki link to this is broken)

https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/de/aussenpolitik/themen/internatrecht/-/240238

Mark Johnson
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