Nice to know someone gives a damn.
I got robbed in Paris many years back, I went to the British embassy and just happened to meet up with two Americans in a similar situation.
Americans, I found out were provided with flights home.
Yours truly, 20 centimes and a map of Paris to enable me to hitch hike to the ferry.
Come WW3 or any other national emergency I will have no problem whatsoever repaying Britain the equivalent value of 20 centimes and a givaway tourist map.
AB
They didn't, The US Embassy sorted their transport out.
The situation was similar up to the point of being broke and documentation free.
Not that the UK wouldn't have minded supplying them with transport, they have given most of the NHS and defence industry to the Americans, it's just the UK natives that get all the crap.
AB
Why did the British embassy provide Americans with a flight home?
They will have been required to repay the costs of that transport.
Not at all surprising.
I was not given that option.
I was not given the 20 centimes either, I informed the scumbags exactly what they could do with it.
AB
Or you might want to become a citizen of a country which has more of a budget abroad to help its nationals. Brian
Thanks to Brexit, that has now been attended to
AB
It wasn't claimed that the US embassy had provided a totally free trip, but whatever the Americans had, I must have had also. I would have had a current account in the UK, was employed and had a Barclaycard account
Should free returns for the penniless be the order of the day, a return flight booking would be a thing of the past, for any country adopting the lunacy.
I suspect if the EU steps in, then there will be a universal, practical worldwide system. I have a couple of Euro accounts, I don't even know the account numbers, but a flash of the passport and a signature does the trick every time. As my dial is logged elecctronically, then I would assume that the passport is optional if the story adds up.
AB
"Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...
I'm inclined to agree that it does seem that UK overseas consular services frequently don't do enough to help Brits get home, even if they do have the means to indemnify them from the costs
But the original suggestion that the USA provided such help for their citizens without such an indemnity, is almost certainly false
tim
It is most definitely false. Consular officials will help contacting friends and relatives for financial assistance. If that is impossible, they may advance a repatriation loan, which MUST be repaid.
So if you get an email or phone call from an entity claiming to be British Embassy Paris, we'll all immediately believe it and hand the dosh over, eh?
A phone call to Barclaycard explaining things should have given you the means to withdraw money.
It was a few years back.
I called into a French bank with the Barclaycard symbol, they did cancel the card, but that was it.
AB
well one assumes that they make appropriate phone calls (presumably initially at their expense)
This is what UK consular services appear not to do - expecting the individual to make contact for themselves, in whatever way they can, presumably because there is a risk that they wont get the cost of the calls back
tim
you've lost your phone, your card and all your money
how do you make that phone call?
and no, that's not an implausible story for someone who has turned up at the GB embassy asking for help. It will be the norm, that's why they will have gone there in the first place
tim
Wouldn't the embassy allow you a free phone call?
no idea
in any case it's probably more than a free phone calls that's required as you will (probably) not know your account number and need to find someone to help you from just your name./address
having an embassy official make that call is going to make that process smother than if you do it yourself
British CONSULATES normally provide fare home if a relative in UK will guarantee repayment.
I thought Brexiteers earmarked the all the luvverly ?350 million for the NHS.
Travelling outside the UK I'm no longer British, I find my nationality at birth has become an embarrasment.
Brexit summed up the attitudes of the thick, uneducated, selfish dimwits that are in the majority in the UK.
I will no longer bother the British embassy if I need assistance overseas.
AB
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