637 Finns die abroad last year

The Unit for Consular Assistance at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs was involved in managing 637 cases of death abroad in 2024, said the ministry in a press release on Friday.

This means that just under two Finnish citizens die in a foreign country every day. There were 81 victims of crime abroad, 227 requests for assistance due to an illness and 131 arrests or detainments.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the missions abroad provided consular services to about 205,000 customers last year. Over the course of the year, the Ministry’s round the clock service was contacted around 6,800 times in total.

The number of requests for assistance was highest in Spain, Germany, Thailand, Estonia and Sweden.

In 2024, Finnish missions around the world issued 15,359 new passports and 5,837 identity cards. The corresponding figures in 2023 were 20,369 and 4,538, respectively.

The crisis that kept consular services busiest last year was the escalated conflict in the Middle East, especially the situation in Gaza and Lebanon.

As part of crisis management, staff from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ consular rapid response team and from the Defence Forces were sent to support Finland’s Embassy in Beirut and to assist Finnish citizens in autumn 2024.

In October and November, many Finnish travellers were affected by the floods in Spain. The missions used social media channels and direct messages to instruct them to avoid flooded regions in different parts of Spain.

There are around 150 natural or man-made crises annually. As in previous years, natural disasters such as hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and countries’ internal conflicts and unrest kept the Ministry for Foreign Affairs increasingly busy.