Corps news – Embassy 27 – July 2010

Envoy ‘offences’ up

Crimes allegedly committed by diplomats in the UK rose sharply in 2009, with some of the more serious misdemeanours including sexual assaults and human trafficking.

Statistics released by the Foreign Office show envoys were allegedly involved in 18 offences which would normally carry a prison sentence of 12 months or more. This figure is much higher than the 10 alleged offences recorded in 2008, but remains proportionately low for a community numbering some 25,000.

While the most common offences included drink driving, a number of serious incidents were reported including two cases of alleged human trafficking of domestic servants by envoys from Saudi Arabia and Sierra Leone, and a Pakistani diplomat was alleged to have made a threat to kill.

A Saudi Arabian envoy allegedly committed sexual assault while another colleague was accused of domestic violence. Diplomats from Nigeria and Jordan were linked to two cases of actual bodily harm.

Under the Vienna Conventions, diplomats and their families are protected from prosecution unless the sending state waives their right to immunity.

In a bid to clamp down on transgressions, an FCO policy review in 2006 decided it was in the public interest to name and shame missions whose staff were accused of alleged serious offences.