Published 10:59 IST, November 19th 2019
Dangerous destinations: These are the most dangerous countries to travel in 2020
According to the Travel Risk Map, Libya, Somalia, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic are the most dangerous countries to travel in the world.
The countries with the highest security risks for 2020 have been revealed in a new interactive map created by global risk experts, International SOS. According to the Travel Risk Map, Libya, Somalia, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic are the most dangerous countries in the world. Other countries where people are most likely to face troubles like road safety, security, and medical matters are also disclosed making Finland, Norway, and Iceland, the safest places to travel. While Libya and Somalia have the lowest rank in all categories, Afghanistan and Venezuela are also among the most dangerous countries and marked 'red' on the map.
Safer places to travel
In contrast to high-risk countries, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Andorra, and Svalbard are denoted as having a low risk of medical problems, security, and road safety issues. Britain has been scored 'low' for medical risks and 'lowest' mortality rating for road safety, and furthermore, it has been disclosed that the UK has 'low' travel security risk. In the Middle East, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Afghanistan while Mali in northwest Africa has been graded as 'extreme' for security risk. The countries with high travel medical risks include Venezuela, Haiti, North Korea, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Eritrea, Burkina Faso, Niger, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, and Burundi.
Factors taken into considerations
To assign the medical risk ratings to the countries, International SOS assigns a range of health risks such as infectious disease burden, environmental factors, medical evacuation data, road trauma data, standard of emergency medical services, outpatient, inpatient medical care, access to good quality of surgical supplies, along with cultural, language and administrative barriers. For the evaluation of travel security risks, the global experts take note of threats posed to travellers by political violence which includes terrorism, insurgency, politically motivated demonstrations, and war.
Furthermore, the officials also include factors like transport infrastructure, the state of industrial relations, the effectiveness of the security and the emergency services. Reportedly, nearly 51 per cent people have responded saying they believe health and security risks have increased in the past year while 47 per cent respondents believe the security threats, civil unrest, and geopolitical unrest will rise in the year ahead.
Updated 11:29 IST, November 19th 2019