Reg. Charity No.1117509
The Matthew Fulham Foundation
Why Campaign?
We are campaigning on behalf of British citizens that are injured or killed abroad as a result of acts of terrorism who have no recourse to any compensation from the Government or any other source.
Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (CICS)
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme is only available to victims that are injured in the UK, which is why the victims of the London bombings will be able to claim but not anyone who was injured by terrorism abroad.
Charities
Unless the number of victims is substantial it is unlikely that there will be a specific charity set up to aid those victims because the numbers affected may be small, like in Turkey, Egypt and the latest Bali terrorist attacks. Charities local to a victim may offer some help. The only help we received was from my employer and Matthews employer.
Insurance
In the case of terrorism most travel insurance policies will exclude any act of terrorism. Those policies that claim to cover acts of terrorism, actually only cover repatriation of bodies and emergency medical help. However, if you are injured such that you need extensive and ongoing medical attention or you are made disabled so that you are unable to work you may not be covered. To date our research has found only one insurer that has been prepared to change their policy (changed in November 2005 Insure and Go) and include personal injury. We will publicise those insurance companies that we do find.
Sue The Perpetrator
The Government suggest that the victims should seek compensation from the perpetrator. This is difficult to do if the perpetrator was a suicide bomber, or a member of a terrorist group! How due you sue groups such Al Queda? Even governments have difficulty finding these terrorist groups, so what hope do we have? And if you knew where they were would you go and knock on their door and say excuse me Mr Terrorist I want to sue you? It is just not feasible and frankly despicable of the government to suggest it..
Sue the State
The Government also suggest that we should sue the state that the atrocity occurred in. How does one go about suing the state of Egypt or Turkey? We have tried emailing the Egyptian Embassy in London, phoning the Egyptian Ministry and writing to them. All of which, result in nothing happening from the Egyptian end. One of our group with the aid of the BBC managed to get an interview with the Egyptian ministers concerned, the Egyptian’s turned round said that it was a ‘Force Majeur’ and therefore they would not be compensating anyone for such atrocities.
(For more detail watch the Real Story with Fiona Bruce 7:30pm -
Why Campaign?
