UK evacuation from Lebanon

[Dawie]

Does anyone know what the UK policy was towards third-country nationals with indefinite leave to remain who were stuck in Lebanon? Did the UK give them the same protection as UK citizens and offer to evacuate them to the UK?

Which raises another interesting question...what is the UK's responsibilities towards holders of ILR if they find themselves in distress in another country and can't get help from their own country? For example you are a citizen of country X and go on holiday in country Z and find yourself in trouble (tsunami, earthquake, unexpected attack by Israelis, etc) and country X has no official diplomatic representation in country Z. Does the UK have an obligation to help you out as it would its own citizens.

I ask this question because if you are an ILR holder who has his entire life based in the UK, it would seem obvious that in any emergency situation you would want to be evacuated back to the UK and not to your home country where you might not have any connections anymore.

Any ideas?

[ppron747]

I know that some non-Brits with ILR were evacuated - whether this was as far as UK, or whether it was just to Cyprus, I don't know. I think all the evacuations were Lebanon -> Cyprus, in the first instance, and not everyone went on to UK.

As to consular assistance for "ILRers" in third countries, the answer is generally no. The reason it's "generally" rather than "absolutely" is that UK offers consular assistance to Commonwealth citizens in many foreign countries if their own country isn't represented in that country. There's a similar arrangement among EU countries - if an EU national's own country isn't represented locally, he can expect help from the consulates of any other EU countries that have a presence there.

But ILR doesn't have a bearing on either of these arrangements - you'd have an uphill task convincing a British consulate that they have a duty to ILRers, simply by virtue of their having ILR.

So don't leave us, Dawie, until you're thoroughly Britished.... There are leaflets on the FCO website to show what you can look forward to....

[Chess]

I remember one or two of the Guatanamo bay detainees was an ILRer but the foreign secretary at that time (Jack Straw) only pushed the cases of the BC's before helping out the ILRers

[ppron747]

Absolutely! It didn't, of course, stop the papers from talking about "such and such from Peckham" or "Kent man such and such...".