Rise in holiday arrests abroad

Drunken tourists and expanding expatriate communities are fuelling a large rise in the number of Britons arrested in popular holiday destinations such as Spain, France and Cyprus. Official Foreign Office figures showed that just over 2,000 Britons were arrested in Spain last year a 33 per cent increase on the previous 12 months and is more than any other country in the world other than the UK itself, after a crackdown on petty crime in resorts led to an increase in arrests for drunken behaviour. An increasing number of Britons are also falling foul of local laws and strict policing in more distant countries such as Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates, these new figures show. Thailand remained the deadliest destination for British nationals, with proportionately more deaths there than anywhere else in the world. Other traditional package holiday destinations are seeing high numbers of Britons getting into trouble, and the Foreign Office said that many arrests are "due to behaviour caused by excessive drinking". Cyprus was the country where British nationals were most likely to be arrested as a percentage of visits made, while in Greece there were 230 arrests, 602 people taken to hospital, 131 deaths and 28 reported rapes. Meg Munn, the Foreign Office Minister, said: "Helping British nationals in distress overseas is one of our most important tasks, but many of the problems are preventable. By carrying out some simple research on the laws, customs and health requirements of a country in advance, as well as ensuring you have the necessary travel insurance policy, many people could prevent their holidays being ruined." She urged holidaymakers suffering the credit crunch not to cut back on travel insurance.