Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs says that its Unit for Consular Assistance is receiving a growing number of calls for support from Finns facing "natural or man-made crises" abroad.
Ministry officials provided consular services to some 205,000 customers outside of Finland last year, including citizens caught up in about 150 crises such as hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and various countries’ internal conflicts and unrest which "kept the Ministry for Foreign Affairs increasingly busy," it said on Friday.
"The crisis that kept consular services busiest last year was the escalated conflict in the Middle East, especially the situation in Gaza and Lebanon. As part of crisis management, staff from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ consular rapid response team and from the Defence Forces were sent to support Finland’s Embassy in Beirut and to assist Finnish citizens in autumn 2024," the ministry said.
Deadly floods in Spain
Last October and November, many Finns were affected by the floods in eastern and southern Spain, which killed at least 232 people. Ministry officials used social media channels and direct messages to instruct citizens there to avoid flooded regions, for instance. An estimated 15,000 Finns live in Spain, with more than twice that number spending part of each year there.
Besides Spain, the greatest number of requests for consular help came from Germany, Thailand, Estonia and Sweden, which the ministry says are the countries where Finns are most likely to travel.
Last year, the Unit for Consular Assistance provided assistance in managing 637 cases of death abroad. This means that about two Finnish citizens die in a foreign country every day, it noted.
Ministry staff also supported Finns who fell ill or became victims of crime abroad, as well as 131 arrests or detainments. The latter figure does not however include Finns taken into custody in the other four Nordic countries, as such cases are handled directly between national authorities.
Travel advisories for Côte d’Ivoire and Gambia
The ministry publishes travel advisories for more than 150 countries, which are the most-read items on its website – particularly posts regarding Spain, Greece, Thailand and Italy. Last year, Finland issued travel advisories for two new destinations, Gambia and Côte d’Ivoire in West Africa. It urged visitors to both countries to take special precautions, noting that ongoing conflicts in nearby Burkina Faso, Mali and Liberia may create political tensions.
Last August, the ministry revised its travel advisories for Israel and Lebanon amid fears of a broader war in the Middle East.
The ministry encouraged citizens or residents of Finland to file travel notifications through its online service before making trips abroad. This enables officials to quickly contact travellers if the security situation in their destination deteriorates. In some countries where there is no official Finnish representation, other Nordic missions also provide consular services to Finns, and vice versa.
Last Christmas marked the tenth anniversary of the highest peacetime loss of Finnish lives: the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami killed 179 Finns in Thailand and Sri Lanka, out of some 230,000 victims in total.
