In Trouble Overseas? Call Your Consulate

It’s scary enough to be robbed, become ill or get arrested while traveling in the United States, but for the 45 million Americans who travel abroad each year, similar emergencies can trigger a daunting array of problems.

Although trip insurance can offer some protection, travelers can also contact United States embassies and consulates throughout the world for a variety of emergency, and a few nonemergency, services.

Some 244 embassies and consulates, and 45 part-time consular agencies are available to help travelers.

Earlier this year, David Schensted, chief of the Consular Section at the United States Embassy in Katmandu was contacted by a trekking company that had had a middle-aged American man die of a heart attack on one of its trips.

“The company brought us the body, which we stored at the embassy in our two-body morgue,” Schensted says.

“We notified the family and explained that their options were either a traditional Nepalese cremation or shipping the body back to the U.S. They chose cremation and asked us to arrange for both a Catholic priest and a Buddhist lama to preside over the ceremony.

“The day of the cremation, we carried the body ourselves, placed it in an embassy van, and drove down to the river banks. At the river we were surrounded by temples and by Nepalese families cremating their loved ones at the same time. We supervised the lighting of the fire and stayed until the body was consumed. Then we collected the ashes and shipped them to the family in the States. It was nothing anyone prepared us to do in diplomat school.”

In another case last July, five American college students were involved in a serious car accident in Pamplona, Spain. One died at the scene, four others were hospitalized. In Madrid, the consular bureau of the United States Embassy became involved immediately, informing the students’ families and sending an officer to Pamplona. The officer met the parents when they flew in, and helped them at the hospital because they didn’t speak Spanish.

If you have a personal dispute, you’re on your own. An American who called a United States consulate in Canada in the middle of the night didn’t get very far when he told the duty officer that he’d been ejected from a bar and wanted someone to call the bar to demand that he be allowed back in.

Other consulates have rebuffed requests to intervene in a disagreement at a brothel and appeals from bickering spouses for marriage counseling.

In addition, don’t expect embassies or consulates to search for your lost baggage, perform a marriage ceremony or act as your travel agent, interpreter, post office, bank, employment agency or lawyer. Although they can often suggest where to find these services, their primary responsibility is to provide help in emergency situations.

If you have an emergency while traveling abroad, contact the American Citizens Services, a State Department agency that has an office in every United States Embassy, consulate and part-time consular agency throughout the world. According to Nyda Budig, a State Department public affairs officer, it is always possible for travelers facing a serious emergency to make personal contact with an individual who can help.

To find the nearest embassy or consulate, carry a copy of the appropriate country’s Consular Information Sheet when you travel. In addition to listing pertinent addresses and phone numbers, these sheets include details about various safety issues and assess the reliability of each country’s medical facilities. Sheets are available on the Internet at http://travel.state.gov; or by fax (you must call from the telephone on your fax): (202) 647-3000. You can also listen to the information as recorded messages at (202) 647-5225, although this can be a tedious and expensive long-distance option.