As I'm sure you are aware over the last eighteen months we have been working hard to update our database of British, Irish and New Zealand Nationals registered with us. There have been a few hiccups along the way and we apologise if you have been affected by these. We have received over 7,000 responses to our emails, letters and adverts and are grateful to you for passing us your updated details. Thank you to all who have responded. The database remains only as accurate as the information we have been provided with. We now ask that  you to renew your registration with us on an annual basis. This should allow us to ensure it remains accurate as people move or leave.

Everyone registered with us has now been allocated to one of our volunteer community representatives (also called consular correspondents), who have been asked to help you pass messages to us and to pass any messages from the Embassy to you. Some of our correspondents have started doing this by writing newsletters to people in their area. If you have not heard from your correspondent, I would encourage you to contact us to find out who you representative is and to then get in touch with them directly to introduce yourself. We regret, due to the large numbers of British Nationals resident in Zimbabwe, that we are not able to arrange community meetings in the same way some other Embassies have. But we have tried to meet as many of you as we can, and hope that by providing you with the details of your consular correspondent you will find it easier to keep in touch with us.

In the meantime I wanted to draw your attention to our travel advice at www.fco.gov.uk.  I would encourage you all to subscribe to our travel advice alerts, which will inform you each time we make a change to the advice. You can do this at http://www.fco.gov.uk/subscribe . 

From time to time we receive queries about evacuation plans. The Embassy takes our consular responsibility in Zimbabwe very seriously and we provide a full consular service in Harare. There have been no incidents recently that prompt us to consider that the threat to British, Irish or New Zealand nationals has increased significantly. We will continue to monitor this. This Embassy, like other British Diplomatic Missions around the world, maintains a consular contingency plan which we review and update regularly. Only in extreme cases do these plans involve an assisted departure. At present, we do not anticipate an assisted departure or evacuation, but we continue to monitor the situation and adjust our plans accordingly.

But all British nationals should be prepared for a potential further deterioration in the situation, and the consular assistance we are able to offer you. If the situation in Zimbabwe does deteriorate further, we will reflect this in our Travel Advice and provide appropriate guidance. I’m sure that any significant change would also be picked up by the international media.

If you do have any queries regarding this message, then please do contact us at mailto:consular.harare@fco.gov.uk consular e-mail We will try to reply to you as quickly as we can.