26 September 2023

Consular calls for help fall by 11,000

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The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has released the Consular State of Play for 2018-19 report, providing a snapshot of the consular cases the Department has managed during the 12-month period.

The report found that in 2018–19, DFAT’s Consular Emergency Centre responded to 48,000 calls, down 23 per cent from the previous 12-month period, with 1400 active cases being handled by DFAT consular staff in any one day.

DFAT reported there were 13,715 consular assistance cases – up from 11,880 cases in 2017–18 and 12,454 cases in 2016–17.

These cases included 1572 arrests, 1506 hospitalisations, 4957 whereabouts inquiries, 1695 deaths and 268 assaults.

DFAT ’Smartraveller’ figures report that Australian residents took more than 11.2 million overseas trips in the 2018-2019 period, an increase of five per cent from the previous year, and 20.4 per cent over the last five years.

The top five countries for DFAT consular assistance remained unchanged from 2017-2018, with all showing a drop in calls for help, apart from the Philippines where a 10 per cent increase was recorded.

Top 5 countries for DFAT consular assistance:

  1. 895 Thailand, down 7 per cent
  2. 666 United States, down 11 per cent
  3. 647 Philippines, up 10 per cent
  4. 563 Indonesia, down 8 per cent
  5. 390 China (mainland), down 1 per cent

The full 16-page Consular State of Play for 2018-19 report, can be found at the following PS News link.

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