Practices by Stakeholder 4

Laws and policies to protect citizens abroad

National laws and policies that articulate the State’s responsibilities towards its citizens when they are abroad provide authorities with clear guidance on their obligations. Citizens also have a sense of what they can expect from State of origin authorities while they are abroad. Laws and policies need not be specific to crisis situations. Laws and policies could include provisions that:

• Mandate consular officers to assist citizens in their relations with the authorities of host States;
• Set out circumstances under which assistance will be provided to citizens abroad;
• Spell out the rights of those who hold multiple nationalities;
• Identify who bears the costs of services, including evacuations;
• Specify actions citizens can take when there is no diplomatic or consular presence in the host State.

Capacity building programs for national and local authorities

Capacity building programs for national and local authorities are required to help them prepare citizens pre-departure and to reintegrate them if they need to return in the context of a crisis. Such programs could include:

• Specifying organizational roles and responsibilities for preparing citizens pre-departure and reintegrating them when they return;
• Developing contingency plans for evacuation and reintegration of citizens;
• Putting in place funding mechanisms to support reintegration;
• Establishing peer-to-peer exchanges among national and local authorities and with other States experiencing similar challenges for discussion of best practices;
• Evaluating prior responses to identify areas in need of improvement;
• Developing referral systems for health services and building capacity of local health services to support citizens’ needs;
• Identifying, addressing, and referring citizens with particular vulnerabilities;
• Collecting data on returned citizens at the local level, including demographics, location, contact and other pertinent information;
• Strategies for dealing with stranded citizens;
• Reintegrating returned citizens;
• Channeling enquiries about missing persons to consular posts trying to locate their citizens.

Training and capacity building programs for consular posts

Programs to enhance consular capacity to protect citizens may include:

• Training consular officials on collecting information on citizens in the host State;
• Training on crisis management, including evacuation and return, and provision of emergency identity and travel documents;
• Implementing consular crisis management software, covering registration, communication, and other emergency procedures, such as hospitalization, imprisonment, or loss of documents;
• Developing contingency and evacuation plans;
• Recruiting locals to enhance understanding of local knowledge and culture;
• Building and maintaining contact with citizens;
• Using public engagements to establish links with relevant communities;
• Ensuring ‘surge’ consular capacity through the deployment of consular and other expert staff.

Internet-based consular management systems

States implement registration, contingency plans, and crisis management systems with varying degrees of complexity. To limit the extent to which such systems may become outdated, States could develop systems that are deployed and operated on the internet, or ‘in the cloud’, where a State pays fees to use software instead of buying it outright. Data can be stored securely and in a manner that respects relevant standards on data protection and privacy, and a State can adapt services over time as needs change. In the case of crisis, additional capacity or services could be added very quickly as required. States could also consider collaborating and sharing their systems with other States, including with the assistance of a trusted third party, like an international organization. Such collaboration should be structured in accordance with relevant standards on data protection and privacy.

Bonds or deposits

A measure States of origin can take to ensure sufficient funds for evacuation or to compensate citizens for losses that result from evacuation is to ask for employers or recruiters, where appropriate, to post a bond or deposit funds with the State of origin or local consulate. The bond or deposit would be used only if the citizen is evacuated, and would otherwise be returned to the employer once the term of employment has ended. This could be useful particularly in the case of small or individual employers who have limited resources to offer support during a crisis. Factors to consider include:

• The amount of the bond or deposit;
• What the bond would cover (e.g., evacuation costs or lost, damaged, or irrecoverable assets and property, including outstanding wages);
• The circumstances in which the bond would be accessed;Who would access the bond (e.g., the citizen or the State of origin);
• How the citizen would apply for and receive proceeds from the bond, including how to assess eligibility for and the amount of proceeds.