Ministry of Foreign Affairs handled 4,000 cases of requests for consular help last year, said Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs Sam Tan in Parliament today.

And while a majority of requests are reasonable, he said consular officers also face their fair share of "unreasonable and weird requests".

For example, one Singaporean requested help to seek a refund after he had procured illegal sexual services. A Singaporean living in Indonesia asked the Ministry to ship to him a desktop computer that he had ordered online from the United States. Yet another Singaporean sought MFA's help to persuade his foreign girlfriend to expedite her own divorce proceedings.

Mr Tan said that these requests divert the ministry's limited resources from other requests.