Aussies being robbed
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has released statistics that show the organisation assisted over 1,000 Australian citizens overseas over the last 12 months, following them being the victims of robberies, many of which occurred in Europe. A spokesperson clarified: “The top five countries where Australians reported thefts [of personal belongings] while travelling abroad were France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Mexico.” Furthermore, there were over 2,600 reports of passports being stolen overseas – the top five countries for this specific type of theft were Italy, the US, France, the UK and Spain.
A new survey from Travel Insurance Direct, an Australian provider of travel insurance, revealed a similarly high number of tourists having their belongings stolen, with one in eight respondents reporting that they had been robbed or scammed at some point while abroad.