Crisis Overseas

If you are affected by a crisis overseas

There may be limits to the assistance we can provide in a crisis so you should  take sensible precautions, read and follow advice provided and take responsibility for your own safety first, particularly if you are travelling to or living in a high risk location.

What kind of help and assistance we can provide in a crisis

Due to the exceptional nature of crises, it is impossible to predict every eventuality. The advice below is an outline of the principles we follow when assisting British nationals and other eligible persons in a crisis.

What you need to do

• Read and follow our travel advice and information given by the British Embassy, High Commission or Consulate. You should be aware that your insurance may no longer be valid if you do not follow our travel advice
• Subscribe to FCO travel advice alerts and follow FCOTravel on Facebook and Twitter, to receive real-time travel advice updates
• Take out adequate travel insurance. Expatriates should assess and consider the risks against any personal or corporate insurance policies
• If you are working overseas, familiarise yourself with your own employer’s evacuation and crisis policies, particularly in high risk destinations
• In some situations, agree to pay back any costs or fees we incur on your behalf (e.g. travel costs, travel documents, cash advances, charter flight costs) by signing an Undertaking to Repay form
• Keep yours and your immediate family member’s passports up to date. During a crisis, UK passport or visa services may be extremely limited, which could make leaving with your non-British national family members more complicated
• During civil or political unrest leave the country at the earliest opportunity, in line with our travel advice. If you do not, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to assist you to leave the country at a later stage
• Find out if your holiday is ATOL protected and what your rights are in the event that your tour operator or travel company collapses before or during your holiday (see the Civil Aviation Authority's website for more information).

What we can do to help

• Support British nationals if injured in a crisis incident or trying to leave the affected region
• Work with local authorities – including hospitals and police – to establish the facts of the incident
• Provide travel advice and crisis updates on our travel advice page and on Facebook and Twitter
• Deploy expert teams to support British nationals and to reinforce our Embassy staff including experts from the British Red Cross and the UK Police Disaster Victim Identification teams
• Set up an information hotline in the UK or an information desk at the airport or closest point of safety, if required
• Support families of any British nationals killed in an incident – in particular around the repatriation of bodies to the UK
• Support families of victims coming out to the scene
• During civil or political unrest we can, in some circumstances, organise an assisted departure where we help you to access transport. In exceptional circumstances, we can provide transport for an evacuation to an appropriate place of safety
• During a pandemic we will, as far as possible, continue to deliver a consular service for British nationals resident or travelling overseas through our network of British Embassies, High Commissions or Consulates. But this may be limited, depending on the scale and severity of the situation. In extreme cases we may have to close our Embassies, High Commissions or Consulates. We will not be able to repatriate British nationals during a pandemic
• During terrorist attacks we have in place Exceptional Assistance Measures for the victims of terrorist attacks abroad, and their families, to take account of the exceptional nature of terrorism in which individuals are random victims of attacks directed at society as a whole. See our statement for more information. We will not provide this financial assistance if victims have travelled against our travel advice
• In events causing disruption to British nationals we will liaise with tour operators and commercial airlines to give the best possible information about their response to incidents which cause significant disruption to travel.