# British Foreign Office Reveals Bizarre Requests

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-foreign-office-reveals-bizarre-requests/603312>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [November 18, 2011, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-foreign-office-reveals-bizarre-requests/603312 "2011-11-18T04:30:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-foreign-office-reveals-bizarre-requests/603312/1 "2011-11-18T04:30:57Z")

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Details [here](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15654414). My favorite is the man stranded at the airport by his dominatrix.

I once knew a couple of British guys who were here in Bangkok as dependents of their embassy-employee wives. They told me it was not at all unusual for some of their countrymen to walk in and flat-out demand money for a ticket back home, saying it was their right.

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**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-foreign-office-reveals-bizarre-requests/603312/2 "2011-11-18T05:02:11Z")

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One of my good friends is a Consular officer with the Pakistani embassy in Abu Dhabi. According to her, requests such as these are routine. It seems people overseas have unrealistic expectations of what their mission is there to do.

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**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-foreign-office-reveals-bizarre-requests/603312/3 "2011-11-18T15:52:21Z")

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A friend of mine worked in the US consular office in Yemen when John Walker Lindh (American, later captured fighting for the Taliban) was studying religion and Arabic language there. Lindh’s parents would periodically call the embassy because the hadn’t heard from him and my friend would go to his apartment and remind him to call his mom once in a while.

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**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-foreign-office-reveals-bizarre-requests/603312/4 "2011-11-18T15:59:56Z")

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They do have to visit you in jail. They do not have to lift a finger to get you out.