When a relative or friend goes missing abroad it can be very distressing and you may feel at a loss as to what to do about it.

If you are in the UK and worried about a British national who you think is missing abroad, we can let you know how to produce a missing person's report for your local police so Interpol enquiries can begin.

Contact the FCO

Contact the FCO in London on 020 7008 1500 or if you are abroad yourself then contact us here.

Although we cannot carry out physical searches on your behalf, we can give you information about appropriate local authorities. We can also give you contact details for any relevant local charitable and voluntary organisations specialising in tracing missing people.

Detective agencies

Where appropriate, we can give you information about the federation or association of any local private detective agencies.

If you want, Consular staff in London can meet family representatives, maintain contact with you and tell you about any new developments.

When a relative or friend goes missing abroad it can be very distressing and you may feel at a loss as to what to do about it.
 
If you are in the UK and worried about a British national who you think is missing abroad, we can let you know how to produce a missing person's report for your local police so Interpol enquiries can begin. Contact the FCO in London on 020 7008 1500 or if you are abroad yourself then contact us here at the embassy.
 
Although we cannot carry out physical searches on your behalf, we can give you information about appropriate local authorities. We can also give you contact details for any relevant local charitable and voluntary organisations specialising in tracing missing people. Where appropriate, we can give you information about the federation or association of any local private detective agencies.
 
If you want, embassy staff in London can meet family representatives, maintain contact with you and tell you about any new developments.

Missing person in China

Missing person’s cases, which usually start out as routine whereabouts enquiries, can quickly become high profile. 

One thing to keep in mind is that China is a big place, telephone call/e-mail might not always be the first thing on their mind when arriving here, so do give them some time to adjust and realise that they haven’t spoken to loved ones at home.

It is important that, even though we try to find the person in question it is not always possible.  Also if the person(s) in question are over 18, they may not want to be found and will do anything to remain that way.

We have a database of British nationals, and would in the first instance see if they are registered with us, however, this is entirely voluntary and without a doubt not all British nationals in China are listed (link to How to Register).

We would then make routine enquiries with the police station and hospitals.  However, we would also ask you to also help us, by contacting their friends and supplying as much information about their last whereabouts.

Following this and as a last resort we would do immigration checks, to see if the national is still within China.  This may take a couple of days, and would need the following information;

• Full name, and date of birth (if possible passport number).
• Last whereabouts i.e. actually in China
• Last contact made with family/friends.
• Last contact details of the misper.
• If any, details of friends/family they were travelling with or visiting.