With summer fast approaching, many of us will be looking around for the perfect holiday destination.
Undoubtedly, you will be looking for somewhere sunny, affordable and safe.
The last thing you want to consider when travelling is whether or not you’re in a potentially dangerous location.
Well, thanks to a 2024 risk map, you can now find out where is and isn’t safe to travel.
The risk map has been put together by medical and security consultancy International SOS.
It considers numerous factors, including medical and security risks – and for the first time, climate change has been included.
On the map, countries are graded on a five-level scale ranging from ‘low’ to ‘very high’ – for medical and climate change – and ‘insignificant’ to ‘extreme’ for security risks.
The insurance company considered several factors – such as women’s safety, theft, terrorism, weather conditions, and health and medical factors.
It’s important to note that the travel insurance’s report ratings are ‘predictive’, which means it doesn’t account for the possibility of natural disasters.
1. Mental Health
Interestingly, the countries with the biggest share of the population with mental health issues, including anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, and schizophrenia contain more of the Western World.
Australia is noticeably dangerous, with 17.5 – 20 per cent of the population diagnosed.
However, it is worth noting that many countries have widespread underdiagnosis, which could lead to their numbers appearing lower…
2. Medical
In the ‘medical’ category, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, North Korea, Palestinian Territories, Haiti, Libya, Niger, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Eritrea, Burundi and Somalia were all labelled ‘very high’.
3. Climate Change
The countries deemed ‘very high’ risk in regards to climate change include: Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Chad, Niger, Mali, Nigeria, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mozambique.
4. Security
The 2024 risk map named South Sudan, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and Somalia as the most dangerous countries in the world.
South Sudan has been mired in conflicts – with tensions between ‘the government, opposing forces, and their respective allied militias’ escalating and leading to ‘the deaths, injuries, and displacement of thousands of civilians’, as per Human Rights Watch.
The US Department of State has warned US citizens to not travel to Afghanistan under any circumstances ‘due to terrorism, risk of wrongful detention, kidnapping and crime’.
There is a war ongoing in Syria and while Libya’s civil war ended in 2020, there are still conflicts happening, with security situations being ‘fragile’ and ‘intense fighting and clashes without warning’, as per gov.co.uk.
Somalia is infamous for violent crimes such as kidnapping and murder, as well as poor medical conditions and pirates actively patrolling the shores, according to the US Department of State.
According to a Venezuelan news outlet Caracas Chronicles, 1.25 million foreign visitors visited the country in 2023 – a 90 per cent increase from the year before.
However, the US Department of State says that you should not travel there ‘due to crime, civil unrest, kidnapping, and the arbitrary enforcement of local laws’.
