smartraveller.gov.au - Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
It's a must see destination.
It's a must see destination.
9. Leave a copy of your travel itinerary with someone at home and keep in regular contact with friends and relatives while overseas.
As it is impossible to predict whether you will run into any difficulties overseas, we strongly advise you to organise travel insurance, even if you have a pre-existing condition or illness, and register your overseas contact details every time you travel.
In cases where travellers are not covered by appropriate insurance, personal tragedies may be further compounded by a long-term financial burden.
Overseas medical treatments often prove to be very expensive. For instance, daily hospitalisation costs in Southeast Asia regularly exceed $800 and the Department has handled medical evacuations from nearby Bali in which costs have exceeded $60,000, and from Europe where costs were over $250,000 for an air ambulance. These costs are not covered by Medicare and may not be covered by private health insurance, depending on the level of coverage. Hospital costs in Europe are usually a minimum of $1000 a day and can be double that in some places.
The cost of returning a deceased person's remains to Australia can be as high as $15,000 and is not covered by Medicare or private health insurance.
Our advice is that if you cannot afford insurance, you cannot afford to travel. Travel insurance can save travellers and their families the burden of large medical expenses. Travellers who are not covered by insurance are personally liable for covering any medical and associated costs they incur. Some families have been bankrupted, forced to sell off assets such as homes, or cash-out superannuation to bring loved ones back to Australia for treatment.
The Australian Government cannot cover the costs of hospital and medical charges. In a very small number of cases, the Government has provided some financial assistance to assist in meeting the costs of medical repatriation, by providing a loan to the family. However, such assistance is limited to very few cases, in which it has been proven that family and friends, even after selling all their assets, were unable to cover the costs of returning the individual to Australia, or to obtain a loan for the required amount. Any financial assistance for medical repatriation is also restricted to short-term travellers, rather than Australians who have chosen to live overseas semi-permanently or permanently. Such loans are fully repayable.
Further information on the importance of organising adequate travel insurance is available in our Travelling well brochure.
All travellers are encouraged to take five minutes before they depart to register their travel details with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. By registering, travellers are letting the Department know where they are. This makes it easier for consular officials to contact them in an emergency - whether it be a natural disaster, civil disturbance or a family issue or to advise them of an urgent travel advice update.
Travellers often get caught up in the excitement of a new place and forget to keep in touch with home as regularly as they promised. For this reason, Australian consular officers will only pursue welfare and whereabouts enquiries which are based on a well-founded concern for the welfare of an Australian citizen overseas and a belief that the person concerned needs consular assistance.
Before accepting and actioning a whereabouts enquiry the Department expects enquirers to have exhausted all normally available channels such as checking bank account and credit card activity, following up with travel agents, contacting family and friends who may have been in contact with the travellers and contacting the traveller's last known address.
If the Australian has registered, it is usually much easier for the consular official to locate the missing person overseas, which can help to save families much unnecessary worry. However, it is a requirement under the Privacy Act that once the person has been located, in most cases the Department still needs to obtain their consent to inform their family of their whereabouts and welfare.
There are situations where a serious or imminent threat to life allows us to communicate with next-of-kin. An example may be in a search and rescue situation where someone has gone missing at sea, mountain climbing or have not returned from a trek and there are serious concerns for their welfare. In search and rescue situations consular officers will liaise with local authorities to ensure that all search and rescue agencies are engaged in the search - consular officers will not coordinate or commence search procedures.
If the Department knows the whereabouts of an Australian during an emergency or crisis in that country we are better able to locate them and provide necessary assistance, and will be able to reassure their family about their safety It is, however, very difficult for consular officers to assist Australians in an emergency if we don't know where they are. Likewise, in response to enquiries from family members as to the whereabouts of Australians overseas, it is also easier for consular staff to locate and assist them if the person has registered or the family has specific details of the missing person's travel plans.
Further details on registration and when consular officials can assist in whereabouts cases are available in the Department's publication: What to do when someone is missing overseas