British Behaviour Abroad Report shows 389 Brits died in Thailand
Each year, the British government releases the British Behaviour Abroad report, documenting British consular assistance cases around the world and comparing them to cases from previous years. These consular assistance cases include drug arrests, rapes, hospitalisations of British citizens, and deaths and include countries like Thailand. In the British Behaviour Abroad report 2013, it’s sad to see British deaths in Thailand have increased by more than 31 percent over those in 2011-2012.
What are the statistics for British citizens in Thailand during 2012-2013?
Statistics for British citizens in Thailand during 2012-2013 include more than 870,000 visitors and an additional 50,000 residents.
The British Behaviour Abroad report for 2013 shows the British consulate in Thailand having to give the fourth highest number of consular assistance cases out of all the countries Brits travel to or live in. The top three countries were Spain, the United States and France.
The UK Foreign Office says Brits are more likely to be hospitalised in Thailand than in any other country in the world, with 285 cases last year. That figure, however, when you look at it closely is very low, considering more than 870,000 British visitors came to Thailand, and more than 50,000 British residents live here.
389 British citizens died in Thailand in 2012-2013. The year before it was 296 people, so an increase of more than 31 percent. Many of these, however, are linked to aging British retirees who live in Thailand and who are more susceptible to illness and disease, as well as to road traffic accidents including mopeds and motorbikes.
In better news, arrests of British citizens in Thailand fell by almost 8 percent. However, 188 Brits were still arrested in Thailand, and 36 of these arrests were for drug-related offenses.
Is Thailand getting more dangerous every year?
Of course, with reports such as these, the usual suspects — the western expats and visitors to Thailand who really don’t seem to like the country but live here or come here anyway — will come out of the woodwork talking about how “dangerous” Thailand is. In fact, it’s not.
As the British Behaviour Abroad report mentions, many of the deaths of British citizens in Thailand are due to old age or to illness associated with old age.
They are also associated with driving or riding on motorbikes without proper safety, and a large percentage are also linked to people being drunk.
After all, you only have to read the headlines of some of the British citizens dying in Thailand to see alcohol abuse, drug abuse or just plain stupidity in some of the Britons who die here as a very real contributing factor, with one occurring just this week with the death of 21-year-old Northern Ireland student, Stephen Clifford, in Chiang Mai.
That’s why when people ask me, a Brit who has been living perfectly safely in Thailand for more than 10 years, if Thailand is dangerous, I always tell them “No”.
That’s because, if you don’t abuse alcohol, take illegal drugs, get into fights with machete armed Thai taxi drivers, drive motorbikes you don’t have the experience to drive, or otherwise do anything else incredibly stupid, you’re highly likely to not only have a very safe holiday but, if you live here, live happily and safely well into your old age.
After all, the British Behaviour Abroad report gives cold, hard facts and figures, it doesn’t tell you about the sheer stupidity involved in many of the British consular assistance cases the British consulate has to deal with every year.
Although I’ll bet, in the privacy of their own offices, the British consulate employees talk about that quite a lot.
