7 replies to this topic

[sunny]

AN ALARMING slump in the number of people signing up to the Foreign Office tracker scheme LOCATE has been revealed.

Out of thousands of long-term British residents, tourists and expats on short-term visas who work and live in the Izmir, Cesme, Kuşadası, Denizli, Didim, Akbük and wider Aydin Province, only 170 of them have signed up to the scheme.

Yet, two years ago, the figure stood at a relatively healthy 1,000.

Locate, a service for British nationals abroad, offers to help find British nationals in emergencies.

Citizens who travel, live or work overseas can register their details online, which are then used to contact them, or their friends and families, if a crisis occurs.

The Foreign Office predict that there are 5.5 million British expats around the world, but only 47,000 people currently on record.

And with 2,390 people from the British community registered living in Didim alone, with the figure easily pushing double that for the wider community covered by the Izmir-based British Consulate, there is concern that people are turning their backs on the help that the consulate staff and the British Embassy offers.

Izmir’s British Consul William Buttigieg MBE said, “We are finding that most people who were on the scheme have failed to re-register. We don’t know the reasons for this as we do not get any feedback.

“We used to have just over 1,000 people registered two years ago but we have seen over time gradually decrease to less than 200 in two years.

“We would like more British residents to sign up to ensure that we can be of service to them when they need us most. Without being registered, we can’t respond as effectively as if they were signed up.”

LOCATE is a free service and is compulsory to register if you wish to use any of your local UK embassy services such as providing officially certified information to government departments in your host country.

The weblink is http://www.fco.gov.u...ing-safe/Locate

[Abi]

Well I hope the BE look at the remarks on Voices and they might get some idea.

[Smurf]

There are many expats who have no desire to be traced by the authorities back home.... one of the reasons they left in the first place !

[sunny]

I've just read the comments on 'Voices' and I can see their point but if an emergency eg an earthquake happened, if people aren't registered with the consulate, how are they to know how many people they need to provide help for?

Perhaps if people don't want to give their details to the consulate, a local list with addresses and phone numbers held by a couple of local people could be made so that people could be located and accounted for in an emergency.

[Fil]

I gave up registering because the last time I tried there was an extremely annoying automatic system that only allowed my to register my presence in Turkey for one year. It was entirely set up to cater for holidaymakers and short-term stays, not for long-term residents. I sent my observations to the Embassy but I did not get a reply. I still got invited to the last function though.

Having reread this and remembering other posts re passport renewal etc I hope I am not sounding too much like Victor Meldrew.

Edited by Fil, 25 August 2010 - 10:44 AM.

[sunny]

Yes Fil, for some reason registration has to be renewed every year or you are automatically deleted from the list by the computer.

[KKW]

It funny that you have to renew your registration with them every year, but a useless lawyer who's on their "Recommended List" is all but impossible to get deleted ?

[samanthaozkara]

i signed up when i first arrived in turkey in 2008 and have renewed it every year as whenever i go to the british consulate in Izmir they always ask me the same questions and make sure i have done it ... also they send emails to remind me which is a great help hehe xxx