Men (and women) behaving slightly less badly abroad

The latest figures indicate that Brits are behaving slightly better abroad, but plenty are still getting in trouble.

Travel Insurance News - 04/08/2011

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Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has issued the latest figures on Brits getting into trouble abroad and, though things appear to have improved somewhat, a worryingly high number of British travellers end up calling on the FCO to help them out of jams. The information is contained in the latest British Behaviour Abroad report, which is published annually by the Foreign Office.

The number of Brits arrested in other countries has come down by more than 10 per cent. Nearly 20 per cent fewer Brits got pinched for drugs offences.

However, though the overall number of arrests is down, a staggering number of Britons is still ending up in foreign prisons for crimes involving drugs. The FCO says it dealt with 5,700 arrest casts in 2010.

The biggest problems, in terms of the number of arrests, were in Spain and the USA. Drug arrests remained a major problem in some other countries, with parts of the Caribbean and South America being of particular concern.

The FCO’s report, which contains the number of cases handled by consular officials around the world between 1 April, 2010 and 31 March, 2011, offers a special perspective on how many Brits run into problems while overseas.

David Lidington, the Minister for Europe, said, ‘We work hard to warn British nationals about the consequences of breaking the law abroad, so it is really encouraging to see the overall number of cases of arrests and drug arrests falling.’ Mr Lidington added, however, that, ‘...last year there were still 5,700 arrests of British nationals overseas.’

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