Government Travel Advice: Laos

16:00:00

I beg to move, That this House has considered Government safety advice for visiting Laos. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Harris. I am grateful for the chance to lead this debate on the Government’s safety advice for visiting Laos and to raise awareness of the dangers of methanol poisoning. Late last year, the family of Simone White contacted me to alert me to her tragic case and their worries about a lack of awareness among young people of the dangers posed by counterfeit alcohol. As any Members present who have seen the media coverage will know, Simone was travelling with her friend Bethany in Laos, as many young people from the UK and other countries do. They were staying in the town of Vang Vieng, a regular fixture on the backpackers’ trail around south-east Asia, when they drank free shots that they were offered in a hostel. The next day, both felt unwell and initially thought that they had food poisoning, but a few days later, Simone tragically died in hospital, the victim of methanol poisoning. I have since had the opportunity to meet Simone’s family and have heard what a wonderful young woman she was, with a brilliant life ahead of her. When attending her funeral in January, it was clear from the eulogies delivered the kind of esteem in which she was held by friends and family. What really struck me was the sense of determination that came through from her friends and family that, no matter what, when she set her mind to do something, she would go out there and achieve it, whether that was playing a musical instrument or deciding at 13 that she wanted to become a lawyer, as she subsequently successfully went on to do. The eulogies also told of a keen sportswoman who regularly played football and netball, as well as finishing several half-marathons to raise money for good causes. A testament to her character was the voluntary legal work she took on outside her job, helping victims of domestic abuse. She also became a covid vaccine volunteer. I pay tribute to the courage of Simone’s family—her mum Sue, her dad Neil, and Tom and Amanda, and their wider families—as well as to her friend Bethany, who was with her in Laos. They have shown courage in fighting for justice for Simone and in trying to raise awareness so that other families do not lose loved ones in the same tragic circumstances. I welcome members of Bethany’s family and others involved in tragic cases involving methanol to the Public Gallery this afternoon—thank you for joining us. Simone was not the only young person to die at the hostel, with two young Australians, Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones, two young Danish women, Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman and Freja Vennervald Sorensen, and an American, James Louis Hutson, losing their lives as well. All our hearts go out to their families, who lost loved ones in the most difficult circumstances. As Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in November, this is “every parent’s worst nightmare”. I put on record my gratitude to the Minister for taking the time to meet Simone’s family earlier this month, and for her replies to my many letters on the subject. I appreciate the support that the Minister’s Department, along with Kent police, have offered to the family during this awful time. Issues with the addition of methanol to alcohol are not confined to Laos, with reports of over 30 deaths in Turkey earlier this year. Nor is the issue new: just over 10 years ago, Cheznye Emmons was travelling in Indonesia with her boyfriend when she drank gin that had been mixed with methanol. The inquest into her death heard that she suffered sudden blindness and convulsions, and died five days later.

I commend the hon. Member for securing this debate. I do not think anyone was not shocked and moved to hear what can happen, especially to young people, who go for one of those adventure holidays where they look forward to the excitement they will have together. Does he agree that although it is ostensibly safe to visit Laos, British citizens need to be aware that excursions out of the safe golden triangle are an absolute no-go? Rules are already in place, but those rules are perhaps not raised enough with British citizens. How does he feel we can effectively get the message across?

It is indeed the case that not enough awareness is currently out there among citizens of all ages travelling from the UK to places where organised crime regularly doctors drinks. Part of the mission of this debate and our conversations with the Minister and the families is to raise awareness and find ways that the Government can help to do that.

I want to raise awareness of this issue today in the name of Kirsty, who tragically died in Bali as a result of methanol poisoning. I also pay credit to her family, who live in my Cheadle constituency—some members of her family are here—and tirelessly campaign to raise awareness of the issue. Methanol poisoning is not just a problem in Laos but in many countries across the world. Does the hon. Member agree that more needs to be done, including having a curriculum fit for the 21st century and a greater public awareness campaign that involves travel agents, NHS providers, schools, colleges and universities to inform and educate people on the very real dangers of methanol being used in countries across the world?

I thank the hon. Member for that moving intervention. Our hearts go out to Kirsty’s family; it was a pleasure to meet her mother just now. I pay tribute to them for the work they have been doing since their loss. I agree very much with the hon. Member that more needs to be done to strengthen the curriculum, particularly to ensure that young people are aware of the risks involved in methanol. But there is much more that we think the Government can do, and I will suggest some ways in which they can do that later in the debate. Following Cheznye Emmons’s tragic loss in Indonesia, Cheznye’s family, including her mum Pamela and her sister Measha, have been campaigning through their “Chez—Save A Life” campaign to warn of the dangers of counterfeit alcohol. I hope we can use this debate—I know other Members wish to participate—as an opportunity to widen awareness of the significant danger that methanol poisoning can pose. That is especially crucial for travellers heading to countries where organised crime, as I said, seeks to profit from using methanol as a cheap way to dilute spirits. I hope that there will soon be progress in the case of the death of Simone and other tourists who died in Laos. I hope very much that those responsible will be swiftly brought to justice, but I know that the case is ongoing and the outcome is uncertain. I am optimistic that with the Government’s support we can take important steps to prevent more families going through what Simone’s family has experienced. I know they would like to see the dangers of methanol much more widely communicated, especially to young people and other inexperienced travellers heading out on those incredibly important first trips abroad. In Australia, the Government are taking steps to increase awareness of alcohol-related risks in overseas travel and are launching a dedicated advertising push to reach young Australians. The Smartraveller hub is a website provided by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It will roll out a specific marketing campaign to raise awareness and educate Australians on the signs of methanol poisoning and how to protect themselves from drink spiking, and on broader alcohol safety, as well as warning young people that they must travel knowing the risks and watch out for their mates.

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. The case he raises touches the hearts of those across the world who have also lost loved ones in the tragic circumstances of methanol poisoning. Would he agree that it is imperative that we must build awareness of how to stay safe abroad among all those preparing to travel, regardless of their age, to ensure that these tragedies are not repeated?

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. This issue does not just affect young people. It is important that we get messages across to young people, and I am suggesting a variety of ways to do that, but travellers of all ages could be at risk from methanol poisoning, and other alcohol tampering and spiking. I will also suggest some ways that the Government could deal with that issue. I would like the Government, as part of their ongoing work, to reform the curriculum, perhaps through personal, social, health and economic education, and to consider how we can build awareness among young people of how to travel safely. If they are looking for inspiration, they might want to look at the Australian campaign and lessons on alcohol safety. I know that Simone’s friend Bethany currently has a petition on the parliamentary website to that effect. I appreciate that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has updated the health section of the travel advice on its website, but I hope that we might be able to review what could be done to make the warnings clearer and more explicit, and that information more readily available. The Government’s Travel Aware website has an informative section on methanol poisoning, but could more be done to make that advice and guidance better known to young people before they travel? Someone really has to search for it to find it. I also hope that the Government might explore whether one of the big players in the travel industry—we all know that big brand names are involved in the travel industry—might consider funding an awareness-raising campaign to educate travellers about how to stay safe as they explore. I look forward to the Minister’s response. I hope that she may be able to answer some of the questions I have raised, and further reassure Simone’s family that everything possible is being done to protect and inform young people of the dangers of methanol poisoning. I commit not just to listening to the response to this debate, but to continuing the campaign to make sure that the different parts of Government that have to work together to solve this problem genuinely do that.

16:12:00

I am grateful to the Minister and to my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford (Jim Dickson) for enabling me to make a brief contribution to this debate, and to highlight an issue about a Brit from my constituency who faced a very difficult situation in Laos. I wish, however, to start my remarks by saying how sorry I was to hear about the truly tragic death of my hon. Friend’s constituent. I very much appreciate the family being here today, and all the work they have undertaken. My former extremely vulnerable constituent was coerced into drug trafficking, apparently enabled online, and detained at the Laos border in June 2024. From then onwards he was detained awaiting trial and facing the death penalty, and under Laotian procedures he was unable to move prisons for more than six months before he died. In December he spent one night in hospital before being discharged back to prison, where he died at the age of 65, thin and with wounds on his body apparently from scurvy. I know that the FCDO engaged with his case when he was still alive and after his death, but I wish briefly to underline two points. First, the length of pretrial detention can make British citizens and their families vulnerable to financial extortion in Laos, and there is a particular problem with obtaining good quality legal support. I urge the Department to continue to engage with my constituent’s family on that issue, given their concerns about recommended lawyers. I appreciate that the FCDO’s travel advice indicates that legal representation is far below UK standards in Laos, but the impact of that on people in desperate situations cannot be underestimated. Secondly, and finally, it is imperative that the risk of what is effectively the transnational exploitation of vulnerable people is better recognised. There must be a co-ordinated response between police and border services, especially when clearly vulnerable individuals are travelling to countries such as Laos. The FCDO website is rightly clear about penalties in Laos for illegal drugs, and that the standard of prisons is poor, but vulnerable and coerced individuals are being manipulated, and they need more than information on a website to protect them.

16:14:00

It is a delight to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Harris, and it was wonderful to hear the debate initiated by my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford (Jim Dickson). I thank him for securing it. I know that he has been active in supporting his constituents all along. I also pay tribute to the right hon. Member for Sevenoaks (Laura Trott), the hon. Member for Orpington (Gareth Bacon), my hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham North (Vicky Foxcroft), the hon. Member for Cheadle (Mr Morrison) and my hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tom Rutland), who have all been active in assisting with educating Members of Parliament—who have so much to do with their young constituents—and were active in a parliamentary lobby just last month. All these approaches will hopefully lead to a proper prevention strategy. I also pay tribute to Sue White, Neil White, Tom Sampson and Amanda Dennis. That family tragically lost their dear daughter Simone White to methanol poisoning in Laos. I want to repeat here what I said when we met last week over in King Charles Street: thank you for your determination to raise the profile of a problem facing so many young travellers. So much fortitude has been shown by the families and other young people, and family members being here today makes this debate even more salient. Our thoughts are with all the families of those who set off with high hopes for their holidays, yet tragically lose their lives. I am grateful for the contributions from other hon. Members today. I pay tribute in particular to my right hon. Friend the Member for Oxford East (Anneliese Dodds). She is right to raise the situation of the family of her constituent who tragically died. My door is open, and I look forward to meeting the family when they are ready to have a conversation about the tragic loss of their dad. My right hon. Friend is also right to emphasise the transnational repression element, which sadly seems to be quite prevalent in parts of the Indo-Pacific, for which I am the Minister. I am very pleased that we have this opportunity, because of the strength that it gives me to improve my mandate to take up this issue with like-minded countries. She raised transnational repression, but also the lack of good quality legal advice in country. Often when a family hear of something, they arrive in a country that they do not know anything about, and, particularly in the country that we are talking about here, the system is very different from that in the UK, so this is where we really do need there to be that high quality legal advice. Laos is a country under significant strain, and that includes its health system. It is a one-party state socialist republic. Culture, history and levels of socioeconomic development inform how open societies can be, and in this particular case, of course, we are dealing with a way of doing government that is very different from our own. Having said that, I was very pleased on a recent visit to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, to be able to raise both the tragic case of the loss of Simone and that of the constituent of my right hon. Friend. For all of us at the FCDO, supporting British nationals abroad is a priority. I want to underline the fact that, happily, most British people who travel abroad do so without incident or the need for consular assistance. Yet every day our staff here in the UK and in our network around the world work tirelessly to help people facing some of the most distressing events imaginable. They work around the clock, keeping cool heads in all sorts of emergencies and crises, to provide assistance to people on one of the worst days of their lives. When an incident occurs, people rightly want to know whether it was preventable and what steps are being taken to stop such incidents happening, so let me set out some of the ways in which the Government are acting, informed in part by the activism that has come out of such tragic losses. The FCDO regularly updates travel advice, including recently on the methanol poisoning question. We also seek to underline other risks—for example, the dangers of travelling on motorcycles without helmets. Our embassy in Vientiane regularly engages with the Laos authorities to help to prevent accidents and incidents. In this particular case, the Laos authorities issued an order prohibiting the sale and consumption of Tiger vodka and Tiger whisky because of concerns that they posed a risk to public health. I emphasise to anybody listening to the debate that it is not simply a question of a shot being offered to someone. It is also the fact that what is in bottles in supermarkets, in some cases, will not be what is described on the label. During my visit to Laos last month, I discussed those priority consular cases with the vice Foreign Minister, and since then our ambassador in Vientiane has met the Ministry of Public Security to receive an update on the ongoing investigation. We cannot prejudice ongoing criminal investigations and potential prosecutions, but we continue to raise with the authorities the need for a swift and transparent inquiry into this tragic case. I have also had the opportunity to raise the issue with the ambassador to the UK and a delegation of travelling Members of the Laos National Assembly. I emphasise that it is not the exact same situation as an MP, as elections in Laos are very different from those in the UK, but I was able to raise the issue with an audience of a dozen influential Laos National Assembly Members. In all our efforts, our goal is to help British nationals make better informed decisions about international travel. Safety is always our top priority. Our advice is there to guide people, but obviously not to set rigid rules; people have their own autonomy with their travel plans. Our work considers all the risks proportionately, and draws on local knowledge to offer advice to those travelling overseas. In the wake of Simone’s hospitalisation, we reviewed and updated our travel advice for Laos to reflect the risks of methanol poisoning. We now include warnings about the risks of methanol poisoning or counterfeit alcohol in the travel advice for Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Costa Rica, Fiji and Turkey. Since then, we have worked with like-minded international partners to review our travel advice globally to ensure that we highlight the risks from methanol poisoning accurately. We have over 30 million individual views of our travel advice every year, so there are a lot of people who follow the Foreign Office as a regular part of their travel planning. Alongside travel advice, the Government also aim to reduce incidents through our long-standing travel aware campaign. This includes encouraging British nationals to secure appropriate travel insurance, read our travel advice, and sign up for alerts. A dedicated section on the risks of spiking and methanol poisoning now shares practical tips on how to spot and prevent it. We are working in partnership with more than 100 organisations across the travel industry to reach more people and direct them to our travel advice and travel aware pages online. That includes airlines, tour operators, and insurance providers. We have a targeted youth travel ambassador programme, and we are giving special thought to this summer, so that we can impress upon youngsters travelling to the Laos region what the dangers are. We are working with partners such as Vibe by Jet2holidays and Gap 360 to reach younger audiences with bespoke information and blogs that highlight the dangers of methanol poisoning. All that raises awareness, and we are committed to improving. Indeed, we are updating our travel checklist to ensure it includes advice on the risks of methanol poisoning—and we welcome all feedback. Finally, I recognise the depth of feeling on this issue. We all want to help Brits abroad to stay safe, and our message to those who find themselves in hot water abroad is: “We’ve got your back.” None of us wants any other family to go through this. The FCDO will consider any future proposals carefully. We will explore more ways to inform British travellers about the risks of methanol—for instance, through channels online—and work with others to get the message out. I thank all MPs who were able to speak in the debate. This debate can also play a role. We will continue to provide clear, accessible, and up-to-date travel advice, and keep it under constant review. We will also work with Governments around the world to reduce the risks, wherever we can—including in Laos. Question put and agreed to.

16:24:00