Abroad and In Trouble? An Embassy Can Help

From stolen funds or a lost passport to a sudden family crisis at home, a multitude of unforeseen circumstances can conspire to throw the best-laid travel plans into disarray, especially on trips abroad.

Such occurrences and others--problems with travel documents, accidents, unexpected illness and encounters with foreign law--can be harrowing experiences for the tourist.

In these circumstances, Americans often turn to the nearest U.S. Embassy for help.

During 20 years in the Foreign Service, while serving as duty officer at American embassies in such diverse cities as Bangkok, Helsinki, Monrovia, Bucharest and Moscow, I have helped many American travelers: a tearful student stranded at Helsinki airport after discovering money, tickets and passport missing; distraught relatives of an elderly American who died while visiting a Black Sea geriatric clinic; a couple traveling with a group in the Soviet Union left behind in Moscow with no assistance when one, suddenly ill, required hospitalization.

Americans planning foreign travel should know about the State Department’s Citizens Emergency Center and what services and assistance to expect--and not to expect--from the nearly 250 U.S. Embassies and Consulates around the globe.

The Washington-based center is the government’s principal link between U.S. citizens traveling and living abroad and their friends and families at home. It handles queries about the welfare and whereabouts of citizens abroad; responds to emergencies; provides services and coordinates information and handles contacts during major disasters. It also provides travel advisories on temporary conditions affecting the travel of Americans in foreign countries.

The center is usually engaged after a call or a cable from a consular officer at a U.S. Embassy. The center deals most frequently with financial and medical emergencies, arrests and deaths. With telephones staffed Monday through Saturday, and duty officer personnel available on a 24-hour basis, the center establishes a connection among the persons in distress, the nearest American Embassy and the individual’s family and friends in the U.S.

The center receives 12,000 queries annually about the whereabouts and welfare of American travelers from worried relatives at home. Such inquires are passed along to local authorities. Most, the department says, are “successfully resolved.”

Embassies and consulates are largely responsible for the welfare of U.S. citizens abroad. U.S. embassies are located in 144 capital cities around the world. In addition, the U.S. maintains 71 Consulate Generals and 26 consulates in other major cities. Embassies and consulates assist travelers by pointing the way to competent medical and dental care, processing emergency loans for travel home, issuing replacement travel documents and routinely performing other services. Together with the Citizens Emergency Center, U.S. embassies and consulates make arrangements in cases of death, injury and serious illness.

Each embassy and most consulates have 24-hour telephone coverage and an American duty officer available around the clock and trained to handle emergencies. A list of U.S. diplomatic establishments, along with addresses, telephone numbers and the names of principal officers, is contained in a State Department publication, “Key Officers of Foreign Service Posts,” available from the U.S. Government Printing Office.)

Americans traveling abroad can register their presence and local addresses with the consular section of U.S. embassies. While this is unlikely to be necessary for brief stops in principal tourist cities, it is a sensible precaution when staying in one place for an extended period, traveling in out-of-the-way locations or in countries where there could be political unrest.

According to the department’s statistics, 6,000 Americans die outside the U.S. every year. In such cases, the embassy duty officer and consular section provide invaluable assistance and advice. On more happy occasions, embassy consular sections can register births, witness marriages and provide other notarial services.

The Privacy Act provisions of U.S. law do limit and sometimes complicate the government’s ability to assist citizens abroad and their families at home. For example, consular officers may not reveal information about an individual’s location, welfare, intentions or problems without the formal consent and release of the person involved. There are many difficult situations when such consent is not forthcoming and the efforts of U.S. government officials abroad to assist are stymied.

Even as American travelers should be encouraged to turn to their representatives at the State Department’s facilities abroad, consular officers should not be expected to give serious attention to trivial pursuits. I recall being awakened in Moscow in the middle of the night by an irate American complaining about the lack of English-language newspapers in Moscow and wanting to know “the latest news” from home. Similarly, while many American embassies have employee cafeterias, few operate public restaurants for homesick Americans.

A few good tips to follow when traveling abroad:

* Check with the State Department’s travel advisory service for any advisories in effect for your itinerary;

* Check your medical insurance to be certain of coverage abroad and understand payment procedures clearly; remember that most medical services will require payment from foreigners on-the-spot;

* Carry along the telephone numbers of U.S. embassies on your itinerary; local telephone directories are often unavailable, frequently unreliable and written in foreign languages;

* Be sure to pack a sufficient supply of required medications in your carry-on luggage;

* Leave an itinerary, including the telephone numbers of hotels, with a close relative or friend at home.