Gerry Brownlee
Wellington, Sunday, June 11, 2017
I encourage all New Zealanders heading overseas to register with SafeTravel.
SafeTravel was launched in 2006 and is the official source of advice for New Zealanders living or travelling overseas.
The site also allows travellers to register their contact details and travel plans so we can reach out to them in case of an emergency or to provide them with updated advice.
Incidents in Britain
While recent terror attacks have occurred in popular destinations for New Zealand travellers – such as London, Manchester and Paris – it is a sad reality that such unprovoked incidents can happen anytime, anywhere.
In the event of an incident overseas, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) can easily contact SafeTravel registrants to confirm their safety and wellbeing.
Trying to find out information about unregistered New Zealanders is often difficult and takes time.
MFAT was able to contact registered Kiwis in London and Manchester quickly after the recent terror attacks to offer information about consular assistance should they have required it.
Contact with family
While it may seem obvious, I also want to encourage Kiwis travellers to phone home if they ever find themselves caught up in a major event.
In the past year, there were almost 67,000 new registrants, bringing the total number to 148,312. Of those, more than 8320 registrants are currently overseas.
In the 2016-2017 year, MFAT worked on 2178 consular cases, assisting 2316 New Zealanders. These cases have mostly been in South and South East Asian destinations.
Most of MFAT’s consular assistance is largely spent advising New Zealanders who break overseas laws followed by deceased holidaymakers, local immigration difficulties, Kiwis losing property, and those who have been victims of crime.
New Zealand has been providing consular assistance since our first Post opened in London in 1871.
I hope all New Zealanders heading overseas will take 10 minutes to register with SafeTravel and encourage others to do the same.
You can register with SafeTravel here and for further information, view SafeTravel’s Facebook page.
Gerry Brownlee is Foreign Minister of New Zealand.
