Looking for help in recruiting an English butler, seeking contact details for a Minecraft YouTuber, or requesting advice on finding illegal employment? If so, UK consular officials do not want to hear from you.
The latest reminder from the Foreign Office (FCO) that Brits abroad should only turn to its staff in its diplomatic missions for assistance in genuine emergencies lists some of the most bizarre requests that its representatives have heard over the last year.
Its top 10 absurd calls also included a man planning to move to Spain who was worried that he would encounter nudists on the streets; a homesick expat asking where he could buy English bacon; a holidaymaker trying to find travel advice for a visit to Coventry; and a European filmmaker looking for an English pensioner to play a part in his film.
Then there was the woman who was disappointed that the British embassy had not sent someone to give her a tour of St Petersburg on her arrival in Russia; a business executive looking for information on the construction of plug sockets; and a man in South Korea asking what he could do with his old pound coins.
Latest figures show about 500,000 calls were made to the consular service with the vast majority coming from those genuinely needing emergency help. The FCO says it helped 4,770 Britons who were arrested, 3,250 people in hospital, and the families of 3,670 people who died overseas. It issued nearly 38,000 replacement travel documents.
James Duddridge, an FCO minister, said: “Our consular staff are a helpful bunch and do an amazing job helping out Brits in trouble around the world. It is important that people remember they are there to help with genuine emergencies and not as an alternative to directory enquiries,.
“Every minute they spend handling a call requesting advice on butlers or nudists is time take away from dealing with life and death cases, so I urge the public to think before picking up the phone.”
Just in case you wondered, the butler seeker was “a lady in Lebanon”; a woman seeking help with Minecraft videos was a mother whose son was a fan; and the request for help getting illegal work was made by a British man in Singapore.
