Australians travelling in Thailand, Indonesia and Italy are the most likely to run into financial strife and call on taxpayers at home to bail them out - but some loans are never repaid, new data shows. 
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has called on Australians travelling and living overseas to take personal responsibility for their welfare - including getting the right travel insurance - rather than calling on the public purse for a loan.
In the largest three loans in recent years, the department forked out $11,275, $14,110, and $14,498 for medical repatriations, according to data supplied to Fairfax Media.
Australians in financial grief overseas can also access subsistence loans of about $150 to tide them over until they receive funds from home, money to replace a missing passport or loans for medical assistance.
The department would not provide details of individual cases for privacy reasons.
It says in principle, people whose financial difficulty has arisen "from their own mismanagement or irresponsibility are not entitled to financial assistance, even if they are destitute and have no means of support".
But it concedes there is often "no alternative to making a loan to these people" and consular officers should guard against the possibility that the loans are not used merely to extend someone's overseas holiday.
In 2014 a National Commission of Audit report found while so-called "traveller emergency loans" were a relatively small expense, the recovery rate was only about 70 per cent. 
However the department said new cost recovery measures meant this rate had since risen to 93 per cent. Loan recipients who refuse to pay back the money can have their passport cancelled or refused.
Of the $2.3 million in traveller loans provided over the past decade, it has written off $254,704.
Some 211 Australian travellers received emergency loans last financial year totalling $145,000.
This is a drop from the 365 travellers issued loans three years prior, costing $218,000.
A department spokeswoman said over the past three years, Australian travellers in Thailand were most in need of emergency loans, followed by Indonesia and Italy. This excludes prisoner loans, which help those in foreign jails buy food, medicine, bedding, clothes and soap.
She said the department would not pay for fines, legal bills or medical services, or post bail. 
"[The department] encourages clients to be self-reliant - financial assistance is only available as a last resort," she said, adding the number of loans has steadily fallen in recent years, as travellers found other ways of accessing emergency funds,  including via ATMs and internet-based funds transfers.
"It is also far easier now than a decade ago for travellers to contact friends and family directly, to request help if they run into financial difficulties overseas," she said.
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