What does the Consular team do?

[British Consular Team]

A lot of the questions TV Forum received before our first interview asked this question. As a quick snapshot, here's what we did in 2019. 

 

 

 

Bangkok Consular Team in 2019.pdf

[Satcommlee]

Interesting Statistics..

I'd like to know more..
 

Of the 491 Deaths, how many were forced to use the Embassies overpriced body repatriation service?

 

Of the 225 Arrests, how many were a result of the Embassy advising overstayers to hand them selves in at immigartion.

 

Of the 217 Welfare cases, how many were handed a western union leaflet and told to get on with it.

 

 

[tso310]

So where are the honorary consuls and what services can they perform ?

[UnkleGoooose]

Ironically the consular team doen't offer consular services (visa, passport) any more, or any other service if they can possibly get away with it. So what are they for?

[rickudon]

i'm sure they do lots of things.

 

When they get informed of a death, tell the State pension to stop paying out, if applicable. Guess that is one service that will involve me, one day.

 

If you are arrested, they tell you to hire a lawyer.

 

Pretty much anything else, pay.

 

They do visit prisoners sometimes!

 

They might be more appreciated if they actually explained what they usually do in the cases they posted.

 

Interesting figure of how many Brits actually live in Thailand - 74,312. Must remember that next time there is a 'we don't matter to the Thai economy' thread. But, if i remember correctly, it was over 78,000 a couple of years ago. Not yet on the extinction red list, but maybe vulnerable.....????

[Kinnock]

Statistics showing 'cases' are not necessarily the same thing as providing valuable assistance.  A case may be closed by not providing useful help (due to Foreign Policy), but it's still a 'case'.

 

And for those of us who were in Bangkok during the Red Shirt occupation, it didn't go unnoticed that while we working and our families were coping, the consular team shut up shop and beggared off.

[jmccarty]

Other consular services are equally low in value. The local staff can be more helpful than your own country staff.  They deal with a lot of complaints and complaining people from the countries they work for. Unlikely they have much or any training to deal in this respect as public servants. They also do not live as you do needing anything in terms of services from their embassy.  They may not get paid much, but they do not have rent, medical or many local expenses.  So the more experienced they are, the less they care about you.  That is why they don't stay for many years in any country. 

[evadgib]

14 hours ago, rickudon said:

i'm sure they do lots of things.

 

When they get informed of a death, tell the State pension to stop paying out, if applicable. Guess that is one service that will involve me, one day.

 

If you are arrested, they tell you to hire a lawyer.

 

Pretty much anything else, pay.

 

They do visit prisoners sometimes!

 

They might be more appreciated if they actually explained what they usually do in the cases they posted.

 

Interesting figure of how many Brits actually live in Thailand - 74,312. Must remember that next time there is a 'we don't matter to the Thai economy' thread. But, if i remember correctly, it was over 78,000 a couple of years ago. Not yet on the extinction red list, but maybe vulnerable.....????

No they don't.

 

[Sujo]

The op doesnt state what they do. They just state what they have been notified and asked for assistance.

 

perhaps stating what they have actually done to assist would be better.

 

though probably a very short post.

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Some off topic posts removed

[British Consular Team]

On 8/17/2020 at 4:03 PM, Fairynuff said:

Why is it that I’ve never heard a good word said about the “services” provided?

We don't usually publicise the compliments we get (although you can see one in last week's update). But I would be happy to redact a few and share them if there is an interest on the forum. 

[British Consular Team]

10 hours ago, Sujo said:

The op doesnt state what they do. They just state what they have been notified and asked for assistance.

 

perhaps stating what they have actually done to assist would be better.

 

though probably a very short post.

We've had several comments along these lines - we hope this answer helps. The infographic actually shows the people in emergency situations that we helped and the services we provided, not the notifications or requests. If we described what we did in all these cases, it would be a very long post indeed. But as an example of what we do, for a rape and sexual assault case members of the team will usually deploy to the victim's location, make sure he/she is safe and gets immediate medical attention, liaise with police and talk to family in the UK if wished. They will stay with the victim as long as they are needed.

 

That's just one example of what we mean by Consular cases. I hope it helps make the infographic a bit clearer. 

[British Consular Team]

On 8/17/2020 at 5:44 PM, UnkleGoooose said:

Ironically the consular team doen't offer consular services (visa, passport) any more, or any other service if they can possibly get away with it. So what are they for?

Visas and passports are not Consular services. They are provided by the Home Office, not the FCO. If you would like to see what we do, here is a useful guide. We'll be posting more material on the work we do to support vulnerable Brits in Thailand over the coming weeks. 

[British Consular Team]

23 hours ago, Kinnock said:

Statistics showing 'cases' are not necessarily the same thing as providing valuable assistance.  A case may be closed by not providing useful help (due to Foreign Policy), but it's still a 'case'.

 

And for those of us who were in Bangkok during the Red Shirt occupation, it didn't go unnoticed that while we working and our families were coping, the consular team shut up shop and beggared off.

This is a fair challenge. But those 1439 cases were all ones where we provided help.  

[DaveCW]

I'd like to see all the embassies actually join up in their lobbying activity to serve and protect their citizens, Yes their citizens, as we are not a citizen of Thailand!. Its no use a single embassy actually trying to do something useful by themselves, it has to be a joint venture. They could start with trying to get immigration to have a uniformed approach, not leave it to individual immigration offices or officials. It should be standard practises in all offices. Why cant they look into this issue. Its an area for concern for many. It been identified for ever, so start helping here. When there is an arrest or other worthy event (corruption), and it obvious that little or no real police work has been done - do something about it. "This kind of think may get in to the UK media, that will reflect badly on possible tourism". Mild (diplomatic) threats possibly, but once stories start appearing in the foreign press things may start to happen - look at the Red Bull fiasco as an example, well done CNN.

[philba]

14 hours ago, DaveCW said:

I'd like to see all the embassies actually join up in their lobbying activity to serve and protect their citizens, Yes their citizens, as we are not a citizen of Thailand!. Its no use a single embassy actually trying to do something useful by themselves, it has to be a joint venture. They could start with trying to get immigration to have a uniformed approach, not leave it to individual immigration offices or officials. It should be standard practises in all offices. Why cant they look into this issue. Its an area for concern for many. It been identified for ever, so start helping here. When there is an arrest or other worthy event (corruption), and it obvious that little or no real police work has been done - do something about it. "This kind of think may get in to the UK media, that will reflect badly on possible tourism". Mild (diplomatic) threats possibly, but once stories start appearing in the foreign press things may start to happen - look at the Red Bull fiasco as an example, well done CNN.

Many Embassies DO cooperate with each other to decide the best approaches to lobbying the Thai government on all sorts of issues.

 

The problem is, they cannot discuss what they're actually doing with the general public, as it would undermine the work being done to privately nudge officials in the right direction.

 

As we all know here, it has to look as if the revelant depts came up with the new rule or ammendment by themselves. They could never admit it was advice/suggestions from a foreign government.

[KarenBravo]

I've watched forty years of "stream-lining to improve efficiency" at the British embassy in Bangkok.

The end result is as you see it. Unless we are raped, or dead, we are just a burden.

To be fair, all this stuff was put into practice by the orders of the Mandarins in Whitehall.