Thailand-British Behaviour Abroad Report
British Behaviour Abroad Report
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British Behaviour Abroad Report
04 August 2011
The annual British Behaviour Abroad Report was published by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 4 August.
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The report shows that, proportionally, British Nationals resident in, or visiting, Thailand were more likely to be arrested and admitted to hospital than in other countries.
Over 50,000 British people are resident in Thailand or spend much of the year here. 847,000 British tourists visited Thailand last year (2010). And of the 347 deaths in the last year, 263 (over 75%) were residents, and after natural causes, the most frequent cause of death in Thailand was road traffic accidents. Other causes of death included drowning, falls from balconies and suicide.
Hospitalisation overseas can entail numerous problems. For example people admitted to government run hospitals in Thailand can often have difficulty communicating with staff. As a result the patient or concerned family members in the UK contact the Embassy for assistance. And in other cases patients have no insurance, or it has been invalidated, leaving them to pay sometime very large medical and hospital bills themselves. Insurance can be invalidated by not wearing a motorbike helmet or if a motorbike’s engine was over the specified size, also through substance abuse or self harm. And often insurance has simply expired. Some hospitalisations in mental health facilities are due to drug-use causing mental illness.
The British Ambassador Asif Ahmad said, “Generally Thailand is a safe place to visit, but there are some risks as the report shows. Taking some simple steps to prevent problems can help ensure your stay in Thailand is trouble free and enjoyable. I’d encourage those thinking about visiting Thailand to have adequate travel insurance; check our Travel Advice; ensure your passport is valid and know when your visa expires; and bring enough money to enjoy your stay and make sure you have access to emergency funds in case something goes wrong.
British Nationals resident in Thailand face a variety of other issues. My Consular team is working on a project to help us better understand the issues affecting retired British Nationals living in Thailand so we can help signpost them to help available locally.”
If British Nationals need advice about a difficult situation, they will find information about what they can do to help themselves, as well as what the British Embassy can do (and what we cannot do) on our website. If they can’t find the information they need there they should telephone the British Embassy on 02305 8333.
The head of the Consular Section at the British Embassy in Bangkok, Michael Hancock, said, ‘the British Behaviour Abroad Report highlights many of the issues my team deal with on a daily basis. For example, in one day in June, we:
Sadly dealt with 4 new deaths, and 9 other recent death cases. There were 4 hospitalisations, one mental illness case, three ongoing parental child abduction cases, 7 ongoing arrest / detention cases. The following evening there were three more Road Traffic Accident deaths.
Three prison officers from a London prison arrived to prepare to transfer a British prisoner to the UK under the UK/Thai Prisoner Transfer Agreement. A consular officer visited the Immigration Detention Centre to visit 6 British Nationals detained there. Our Honorary Consuls also conducted prison visits.
We issued 3 Emergency Travel Documents, 7 people visited the Embassy in need of advice on welfare, 59 people visited the consular counter for documentary services (e.g. certifying copies of passports), we received 157 emails from customers, 251 phone calls from customers, 2 emergency out of hours calls.
