British behaviour abroad

With the holiday season upon us, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is set to deal with the thousands of UK citizens that will be calling upon its services this summer. To coincide with the holiday season, the FCO ‘Know Before You Go’ campaign today releases its British Behaviour Abroad report, revealing the numbers of British citizens getting into trouble abroad.

The report provides incident figures from Foreign Office records highlighting the key problems that British nationals experience abroad. According to the most accurate figures available, the period April 05–March 06 saw 1,368 Britons arrested in the USA; 955 hospitalised in Greece; 376 British citizens die in France and 6,078 lose their passports in Spain.

The FCO believes that many of these problems could be prevented or made easier to deal with through better preparation by travellers, and by releasing these figures it hopes to encourage travellers to be more prepared for their trips and more aware of their environment whilst abroad.

The report reveals many interesting findings: The Czech Republic features as one of the countries where most consular assistance is required with a disproportionate number of lost passports, arrests and hospitalisations. This is likely to be due to the massive influx of hen and stag parties to Prague.

India, Thailand and Australia also appear in the top ten countries where Briton’s required consular assistance - perhaps suggesting although Brits are getting more adventurous with their travels they are not doing enough preparation before they go. The high figures in India might well be a result of many British Asians visiting family members and forgoing usual travel preparations such as vaccinations or travel insurance.

Foreign & Commonwealth Office Minister, Meg Munn, said: "One of the most important tasks for the Foreign Office is our work to help British nationals in distress overseas. As this report shows, although some of the incidents people face are unavoidable, many can be prevented with a little planning and careful preparation. Simple precautions like researching your destination, getting comprehensive travel insurance, checking out medical requirements and taking copies of important documents could help avoid common travelling traumas, risks and dangers in the long-run."

In order to help British nationals to be better prepared for their overseas trips, the FCO runs the ‘Know Before You Go’ travel safety campaign. This campaign targets all British travellers from hen and stag groups to football fans; 16-18 year gap year travellers to retirees considering moving abroad.

Each campaign aims to encourage people to prepare for their travels with a view to avoiding common travelling traumas, risks and dangers. The latest ‘Know Before You Go’ campaign initiative is a TV ‘filler’ advertisement explaining what the FCO can and can’t do for you, launching August 2007.

For more information, visit FCO.gov.uk/travel