Foreign Office mandarins serving in Bali, the Maldives and Abu Dhabi get extra holidays and bonus pay for 'hardship', The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Under generous taxpayer-funded deals, staff get 'breathers' for taking up 'hardship posts'. These are supposed to be in places where there are security threats, high levels of crime or air pollution.

They also get tax-free bonuses of up to £10,000 a year.

The perks are intended to alleviate the toll that serving overseas in dangerous places can take on officials' physical or mental health.

Yet scores of exotic destinations have made it onto that list.

Critics have questioned why Abu Dhabi – one of the safest cities on Earth – or Cape Town would cause officials 'hardship'. Both are sought-after holiday locations.

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) does remove some destinations from the 150-strong hardship list. Bamako, the crime-ridden capital of Mali, was removed this year. Yet honeymoon favourite Muscat remains on the list. And officials posted to Turks and Caicos Islands, where they can enjoy 350 sunny days a year, get hardship relief.

One defender of the scheme told the MoS: 'It is odd that there are some undeniably glamorous places on there. It may be for reasons of isolation.'

Yet some civil servants have used their extra breaks to fly to other 'hardship postings' on taxpayer-funded jets. 

One official took his partner on holiday from New Delhi to Kathmandu in the Himalayas to 'take a break away from local conditions'. Since Labour took office, there have been a dozen taxpayer-funded jaunts from New Delhi alone.

Ministers have begun to refuse Freedom of Information requests and parliamentary questions, citing national security reasons.

The MoS revelation has triggered calls for some destinations to be culled. Kevin Hollinrake MP, Tory chairman, said: 'While businesses and families are paying higher taxes to fund this Government's policies, civil servants are sent on taxpayer-funded jollies.

'It's an insult to every taxpayer across the country.'

And William Yarwood, campaigns director of the TaxPayers' Alliance, added: 'Ministers should urgently review these allowances, publish the costs and stop taxpayers bankrolling civil service perks dressed up as welfare.'

An FCDO spokesman said: 'British diplomats serve their country around the globe, including in some of the toughest and most challenging physical and political environments in the world.

'We have a duty of care to ensure our staff are properly supported, and compensation and other provisions reflect the circumstances of the posting.'