Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Brits in trouble

The third annual British Behaviour Abroad report reveals that UK nationals are continuing to get into trouble overseas – with increasing numbers of them in Spain.

According to the report, around 17 million Brits visited Spain during the period -April 2006-March 2007 . There are also an estimated 761,000 UK residents living in the country. Of these 5,470 people required ‘serious assistance’ from Consulate offices following arrests, hospitalisations, deaths or reported rapes – double the number of any other country.

In comparison 14.8 million Brits visited France where an estimated 200,000 UK residents live. During the period covered by the report there were just 1,572 serious assistance cases in France.

In the breakdown of figures Spain had the most arrests with 2,032 – a total of 33% more than last year – although proportionally Brits were more likely to be arrested in Cyprus, closely followed by the USA and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Not surprisingly the majority of problems were related to excessive drinking. The advice is to know your limit and try not to drink more than you usually would at home. Following reports about binge drinking in the British press, I'd say they'd be better drinking a lot less than they do at home.

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