“Your trip, your responsibility”: Foreign Affairs urges travelers to leave well prepared for vacation
© Marc Herremans – Mediahuis
« Your trip, your responsibility »: that message will give the FPS Foreign Affairs again at the start of the summer season on Monday. The government service says that it is available to Belgians abroad, but at the same time adds that good preparation can avoid many problems.
Source: Belga
Today at 12:27 PM
« Check the travel advice, register on travelers online and consider travel insurance, » advises Joris Salden, director-general consular matters at the FPS. « Fortunately, the majority of journeys are going well, but if a problem pops up, travelers realize that they may not speak the language or are not familiar with local legislation. »
In the current rapidly changing world for Foreign Affairs, the travel advice is the reference to know the situation on the spot. « The advice per country also goes deeper into certain regions, » explains Salden. « Our posts on the spot have a good and up-to-date view of the local situation. And not just for exotic countries. Remember the heavy bands of recent years in France and Greece, among others: they too were taken. »
Travelers are also advised to register their journey through travelers online. « Important, and quickly arranged, » says Salden. « Important, because we have a view of which Belgians are in the area of, for example, a region with forest fires or a city where an attack occurred. The first question we ask ourselves is: are there Belgians involved? Registration on travelers Online is also important for the home front: after contact with the Belgians in question, we can reassure their family members. »
Salden further emphasizes that the travelers online database is only used by the services of Foreign Affairs. The data is deleted a few days after the end of the trip.
Passports and Visa
Travel insurance is also part of good preparation. « Those who do not have insurance cannot count on medical care in some countries: so be aware of it, » said Salden. Furthermore, it is also useful to check whether the passport is still valid long enough. Requesting a new passport takes time. The same for applying for a visa.
Finally, Salden also points to the most common problem during travel: theft. So make sure you have a copy of your documents, possibly forwarded to your own e-mail address, and a list of useful telephone numbers, such as that of the embassy. « Every embassy has a permanence, and is therefore available 24/7, » it still sounds.
