MacClaren: are non-US customers not good enough for you?

So I am catching up on my daily reading online at the end of what has been a very long and tiring day and I catch the headlines about the MacClaren recall on 1 million strollers...apparently all sold between 1999 and Nov 2009.  That's 10 years of product affected!  Seems the company has received 12 cases of amputations caused by the stroller hinge mechanism.  They planned on announcing the news today, but so far, they have done a good job of communicating with or responding to customers.  Of course parents are upset and talking/blogging/twittering about this.  I know I am!

Being a MacClaren stroller owner myself (and how many parents in Dubai don't have one?) I am very concerned.  Mother Loadcaptures my feelings of outrage to a tee.  But unlike her and hundreds of thousands of parents in the US who are fuming and worried about this recall (especially for the way the company is managing the issue online and offline), I am also feeling very helpless.  Why?  Because as a non-US customer, I have no guidelines, no recourse.  I've tried calling the US hotline, but can't get through (even TIME's article metioned this, "good luck getting through"), and I have tried the company's website to find helpful information.  The US site has the update on the recall, but if you click on the UK site, the company states the recall only affects US consumers and retailers and does not apply to the UK or any other country outside the US.  Seems that if we non-US customers use the product like we're supposed to, then the risk of injury (i.e. amputation) is "non-existant."  If you click on the UAE site, there's no mention at all about the recent news.  Same thing for Lebanon and the rest of the Arab country-specific sites.

Where does that leave us?  Even if there is no risk of amputation with strollers purchased outside the US, shouldn't MacClaren make more of an effort in communicating the "WHY?"  We're parents, we ask "why" all the time, especially when it concerns child  safety.  They claim the following about their products: "Maclaren is a premier British parenting lifestyle company that produces the worlds most safe, durable, innovative, and stylish baby buggies, strollers, carriers..." But so far, the company's non-communication about non-US sold products, beyond the general statement on its UK site, is less than reassuring.  Are the products sold outside the US not manufactured in the same plant?  What makes them so different?

Can we trust MacClaren to be saying the truth? Or is it that non-US retailers don't have a representative legal body like the US Consumer Product Safety Commission acting like a watchdog and enforcer?  What options do we as parents in the ME have?  I love the convenience of our MacClaren, but if it's a danger to my little CAT, and there's no news from the company by the time the weekend comes around (we only use the stroller on the weekend), then it's back to the Quinny Zap, as uncomfortable as it for napping.

How do you feel about this recall?  If you own a MacClaren, will you continue to use it?