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As you may have heard, the current US president [reportedly] made a disparaging remark about certain countries and it raised a few eyebrows in the media and various political discussion forums. Because of the nature of the discourse on this subject I decided to see what nations were considered by the US State Department to be unsafe for US citizens to travel. This map allows the viewer to explore those places on their own - https://travelmaps.state.gov/TSGMap/?extent=-0.879381859,47.401628436,20.397707357,54.42135931
Now, I'm not so worried about the "Exercise increased caution" areas but the "Reconsider travel" and "Do not travel" areas should give one pause. Among the "Do not travel" and "Reconsider travel" sites are most of the nations of north Africa. Libya, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic and South Sudan are all in the "Do not travel" category. Six other north African nations fall into the "Reconsider travel" category. In the Americas we don't have any "Do not travel" nations but there are several "Reconsider travel" category nations. Among those are Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala and El Savlador.
To be fair, these advisories could have simply been issued by the Trump administration to cover his posterior so let's see how these advisories compare with advisories by other nations. Let's start with the UK - https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice
Central African Republic? They also advise against travel.
El Salvador? Cite a high crime rate and advise extra care. That's pretty consistent with the US.
Haiti? They cite nationwide crime and advise against travel to certain areas of Port-au-Prince. They also mention frequent violent blockades. Sounds like they'd agree with the US advisory.
Libya? They advise against all travel to the nation.
Hmm...maybe there really are some unpleasant places in the world and maybe there really is some international agreement on where those places are.
Now, I'm not so worried about the "Exercise increased caution" areas but the "Reconsider travel" and "Do not travel" areas should give one pause. Among the "Do not travel" and "Reconsider travel" sites are most of the nations of north Africa. Libya, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic and South Sudan are all in the "Do not travel" category. Six other north African nations fall into the "Reconsider travel" category. In the Americas we don't have any "Do not travel" nations but there are several "Reconsider travel" category nations. Among those are Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala and El Savlador.
To be fair, these advisories could have simply been issued by the Trump administration to cover his posterior so let's see how these advisories compare with advisories by other nations. Let's start with the UK - https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice
Central African Republic? They also advise against travel.
El Salvador? Cite a high crime rate and advise extra care. That's pretty consistent with the US.
Haiti? They cite nationwide crime and advise against travel to certain areas of Port-au-Prince. They also mention frequent violent blockades. Sounds like they'd agree with the US advisory.
Libya? They advise against all travel to the nation.
Hmm...maybe there really are some unpleasant places in the world and maybe there really is some international agreement on where those places are.
