Singapore:
Singapore's foreign minister on Thursday urged his globetrotting countrymen to be more considerate of the city-state's consular services and revealed cases of abuse, including a man's demand for help getting a refund for sexual services.
K. Shanmugam, who is also the law minister, said in a Facebook post the number of overseas trips made by Singaporeans had surged to seven million in 2013, compared to 3.6 million a decade ago.
Singaporean citizens number 3.31 million, just over 60 percent of the wealthy city-state's 5.4 million population.
"We handled over 3,000 consular cases last year. Many cases are genuine. But sometimes we do get odd requests," Shanmugam said.
In one instance, Shanmugam said a Singaporean sought Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) intervention "for a refund after he had gotten illegal sexual services in a foreign country".
"He wasn't satisfied with what he had gotten. We had to tell him that MFA could not help!"
Shanmugam said the ministry also declined to intervene when a man demanded an investigation over alleged racial discrimination while overseas.
The man had claimed "he received a smaller piece of KFC chicken compared to what the locals had."
"He wanted MFA to investigate this instance and seek justice in that foreign country for the unfair treatment he claimed to have received," Shanmugam said.
In another case, a Singaporean man was also turned away by consular officers after he implored their help to convince his foreign girlfriend to divorce her husband, so that he could marry her.
"We want Singaporeans to marry and have children. But there are limits," wrote Shanmugam. "We have to draw the line between what is personal responsibility and what's not."
The light-hearted post was shared virally, with one Facebook user describing it as an account of "the entitlement mentality of some Singaporeans."
The MFA is has 49 overseas missions and 30 honorary consuls-general.