The UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has released a list of the most inane enquiries it fielded in 2014, after revealing that 38 percent of all calls made to diplomatic missions abroad “were not related to consular support at all.”
The FCO said it received
more than 365,000 calls last year. In what has become an annual
feature, it has published the most irrelevant
ones:
– A caller asking for help with setting up ‘British-style’
hanging baskets at a trade show because the professional gardener
hired for the purpose had stage fright
– A British woman asking the consulate in Albania how to find out
if her son’s fiancée was already married
– A caller asking for advice on how to treat a cat’s infected paw
– A man requesting that staff at the embassy in Mexico City go to
the airport to check whether he had left his mobile phone on a
plane
– A woman in Italy calling to enquire how she could synchronize
her TV antenna to receive English channels
– An event coordinator in Brussels asking for the name of a
Scottish chef based in the country who could make haggis for a
Burns Night event
Check out our list of odd requests received from British
nationals around the world http://t.co/3oCZRVsmdG #FCOcanpic.twitter.com/arkhKmgboG
— FCO travel advice (@FCOtravel) February
27, 2015
Foreign Commonwealth Office Minister David Lidington
pleaded for understanding from Brits and others who believe the
UK diplomatic mission is a one-stop-shop for all things British.
“We will always try to help where we can but there are limits
to what we can do, so it’s important for people to be aware of
how we can help,” he said in a statement.
“We can issue an emergency travel document if your passport
is lost or stolen, offer support if you become a victim of crime
or visit you in hospital or prison, but we aren’t able to pay
medical bills, give legal advice or get you out of jail, or
indeed act as veterinary surgeons.”
Lidington said the sheer volume of irrelevant queries prevents
the FCO – which has been suffering from noticeable budget cuts in
recent years – from helping those it can.
“It is important for FCO consular staff to be able to focus
on our most vulnerable customers, such as victims of crime, those
who have lost a loved one abroad or people who have been detained
or hospitalized overseas.”
The FCO said that according to surveys, 45 percent of all Brits
aged 16 to 24 had an inaccurate idea of what embassies and
consulates are, and what their function is.