At a glance
What help can you expect from the consulate and from your travel assistance provider when you run into trouble? What do they each do?
Do you have a serious problem abroad?
Can the Belgian embassy or consulate help you?
Or is it better to have good travel insurance?
What kind of help do tour operators and airlines provide?
Different help depending on the problem
When a Belgian national abroad is faced with a "serious" problem, they can turn to the services of diplomatic missions (embassies) or consular missions (consulates, honorary consulates) of their own country or of another EU country present locally. But be careful, these representations don't step in in every case, and what they can do is limited!
For the most common and recurring problems, such as a medical problem, financial compensation following lost luggage, a cash advance, or a return home following the bankruptcy of an airline or hotel chain… they won't be able to help.
If you're faced with a problem of this kind, you'll need to turn to your travel assistance company or, in some other cases, to your tour operator.
What embassies and consulates can do
Belgium has diplomatic or consular missions in most countries around the world. In some cases, the Belgian diplomatic post is represented in a neighbouring country or a more distant one.
Belgian representations can step in in very specific and limited cases, such as issuing a "laissez-passer" or an "Emergency Travel Document" (ETD) allowing you to return home when your passport or ID card is lost or stolen abroad, contacting family in Belgium in the event of a (serious) accident or a (serious) illness, contacting family in the event of death and providing information or assistance regarding procedures for repatriating the deceased, the arrest of a Belgian national and/or their imprisonment…
In the event of border closures (lockdown), Belgian representations can also advise, or – in some cases even – assist Belgians who are stuck abroad.
Under no circumstances will the mission step in or cover medical, repatriation or burial costs, nor those of travel companions.
What should you do if you're in distress in a country with no Belgian diplomatic representation?
In that case, you can always turn to the diplomatic representation of another EU country present in the country you're in.
Diplomatic and consular missions also have an advisory and warning role: they can inform and advise their nationals and warn them in the event of imminent danger (risk of a natural disaster, earthquake, tsunami, hurricane…), insecurity or instability (political instability, an act of terrorism, major riots or violent protests, revolution, civil war...). To warn its citizens, the diplomatic mission has the Belgian Foreign Affairs Ministry website, which provides travel notices and information by destination as well as recommendations by country.
It also has its Travellers Online website. By registering on this site, the local Belgian consulate will know about the presence and stay (tourist, professional, permanent…) of registered Belgian nationals and will be better able to contact them to inform and help them in the event of a major problem.
Travel advice from the diplomatic posts of other countries can also be found on their official websites, such as France, Great Britain, the USA…
Embassies and consulates don't always step in.
Diplomatic missions cannot step in to settle your costs abroad (hotel, hospital, fine…), or to issue you a new passport to return home (though they can issue a temporary document), nor can they interfere in court decisions or those of local authorities, or take the place of insurance, travel or banking companies… They may also have limited scope for action if you hold dual nationality.
For more information, click here.
What Redion does
Depending on the type of contract taken out, travel assistance steps in in a large number of urgent circumstances, such as:
- following up a medical problem and covering medical costs;
- putting you in touch or reconnecting you with family back in Belgium;
- repatriation following a medical problem, or a problem at home;
- covering the insured travel companions;
- help and information in the event of lost documents or travel tickets;
- a cash advance;
- helping pay bail;
- sending replacement luggage;
- information about the destination country
- …
Travel assistance won't step in for specific cases and problems for which you can turn to diplomatic missions or tour operators.
Good to know: in the event of accidents or disasters affecting a large number of Belgians, it's not uncommon for Belgian assistance companies to work together, with the help of the local embassy and local authorities, in order to coordinate help and carry out repatriations.
What tour operators and airlines do
It's not uncommon for a tour operator (or an airline) to offer its customers stranded on the spot or affected by a disaster the chance to benefit from an early return or an evacuation to a safer place, with or without the help of the diplomatic post and local authorities. This is particularly the case when holidaymakers face major problems due to an insecure situation (attack, riots, strikes…), a dangerous health situation (a sudden epidemic), a natural disaster (earthquakes, volcanic eruption, hurricane…) or a bankruptcy (of an airline, hotel chain…), provided there's no medical emergency (since that's covered by the travel assistance provider).
A few useful links
