Risk-taking French tourists face holiday rescue costs

FRENCH tourists going to risky foreign destinations could be asked to pay if their government has to come to the rescue.

A draft law proposed by the foreign minister would oblige travellers to reimburse air fare and other costs incurred to rescue them from war zones, hostage-takings and other hostile situations.

Officials say the aim is to promote responsibility among travellers at a time of rampant piracy and kidnappings across the globe.

But critics believe the measure would not prevent hot-headed travellers from getting into trouble in dangerous corners of the world and say the government must protect its citizens.

The Foreign Ministry said the measure will not affect cases like that of Clotilde Reiss, a 24-year-old French teacher on trial in Iran freed on Sunday on bail of about €210,000 paid by the French government.

The ministry says the law, presented by Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner last month, would apply only to leisure-seeking tourists and their travel agencies, but not to diplomats, reporters, aid workers and others engaged in professional activity abroad.

As one example of the costs involved, a Foreign Ministry official said the government paid some €726,000 to fly home 500 tourists stranded in Thailand amid civil unrest in late 2008.

According to a preliminary draft of the law, the decision to fine a traveller would be taken by a French court and only on rare occasions. The tourist would cover all or part of the costs incurred by the government depending on the case.

It is still unclear whether it could apply to situations like that of the two French pleasure boats seized by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean over the past year whose hostages were freed by French Navy commandos.

In one of those cases, the French government repeatedly warned the boat’s French captain, travelling with his family and friends, not to travel in the area. The commando raid to free them in April prompted a shootout in which the captain and two pirates were killed.