More Aussies getting into strife overseas, DFAT report shows

AUSSIES love to travel but a new government report card reveals how many of us are playing up — and how many are getting locked up — while overseas.

What could go wrong? Elephant rides are often not covered by standard travel insurance policies. Picture News Corp Australia

MORE Australians are being arrested, jailed, assaulted and hospitalised overseas, a new report from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has revealed.

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The 2015-16 Consular State of Play, shows of the 10.2 million Aussies who travelled abroad, government assistance was provided to 15,740 people.

The number of people arrested overseas surged 23 per cent to 1551, and imprisonments grew five per cent to 391.

Aussies behaving badly. More Australians are getting into strife overseas. Picture: AP

Deaths were also up to 1516 from 1228 the previous year. Most were attributable to sickness or natural causes but 47 related to murders and 214 were the result of accidents.

Of the 315 assaults (up from 234), 136 were of a sexual nature — an increase of 40 per cent on the previous year.

Incidents that triggered the most inquiries or requests for consular assistance were the Bangkok bombing in August, 2015, the Paris terror attacks in November last year and the January attack in Jakarta.

Thailand remained the country where Australians were most likely to run into trouble with consular cases up 25 per cent on last year to 836, followed by the US with 770 — a 19 per cent increase on 2014-15.

Here’s trouble. The consular post in Bangkok is Australia’s busiest. Picture: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

Indonesia, Italy and the Philippines made up the rest of the top five busiest consular posts.

Although China had the highest number of Australian prisoners with 61, the US recorded the highest number of arrests with 262 — up from 169.

The most common reason for arrest and imprisonment was drug-related offences followed by fraud and assault.

“The advice to travellers is simple,” noted the report.

“Don’t carry or consume illegal drugs overseas. Ever.”

On a brighter note, only eight per cent of Australians travelling overseas did so without insurance but younger people were more likely to tempt fate, with 15 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds leaving the country with no cover.

“Too many people are willing to travel uninsured,” said the report.

Risky business. Many Australians don’t know what their travel insurance covers. Picture: AFP/Cesar Manso

“Thirty-one per cent thought it was okay to travel without insurance to a developed country.”

An accompanying survey by the insurance industry revealed high proportions of travellers undertaking activities for which they were not insured including skiing, riding an elephant or camel, skydiving and riding a motorbike.

Out of all the Aussies who travelled abroad, almost a quarter (24 per cent) experienced an “insurable event” such as flight cancellation or flight delay, medical treatment or lost or stolen belongings.

“168,658 Australians without insurance experienced an insurable event while overseas in the past year,” the report said.