The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has released a list of the ten oddest requests it received from Brits living abroad in 2018.
Last year, the FCO received more than 330,000 calls from British people who needed the organisation’s help. This included more than 3,400 people who had been hospitalised and 4,900 who had been arrested. The FCO also issued more than 29,600 emergency travel documents to help people who had lost their passports make onward journeys.
However, not all calls were of such vital importance. These are ten of the more unusual calls the FCO received:
– A caller in the USA asking which contestant had been voted off Strictly Come Dancing the previous night.
– A man asking where he should send a 5-foot piece of wood that he had found on a beach, he thought may be from a British warship from the 1700s.
– A caller in the Netherlands who had just watched Braveheart and had some questions about the plot.
– A person in Italy asking the embassy to help arrange their wedding, recommend a florist and get them tickets to see the Pope.
– A caller in the Canary Islands requesting that we persuade his hotel to give him a different room as a stray cat had “broken into” his existing one and peed on his bed.
– A man enquiring if there were vampires in Poland because a woman he met online asked what blood type he was before they met for their first date.
– A man in New Delhi asking what time the British High Commission opened, as he’d heard we sold vegetarian sausages and wanted to buy some.
– A man in Kuwait asking if any of our staff wanted to adopt his puppies.
– A caller asking if we could provide a list of women in Argentina who he might be able to marry.
– A man requesting we speak to massage parlour in Bangkok on his behalf, as he fell asleep during a massage and felt he shouldn’t have to pay for it.
“I can regretfully confirm that the Foreign Office isn’t able to offer advice on vampires, rogue stray cats or ‘Strictly’ contestants. And our capacity to deploy veggie sausages remains sadly lacking,” said an FCO spokesman. “But in all seriousness, getting into trouble abroad can be daunting and upsetting. If you find yourself in an emergency in another country, contact the nearest British Embassy, High Commission or Consulate and our consular staff will do everything they can to help.”
Article published 3rd January 2018