Safety When Working Overseas

Factual Questions
#1

I sometimes get asked if I would be willing to work in (country X). I have previously worked (short term) in Europe, China, Brazil, South Korea and Pakistan. I’ve become much more cautious in regards to personal safety, so I want to feel comfortable with a given country/region before I commit to working there. I’m definitely not an international security expert. I usually look at the following websites:

  • US State Dept.
  • BBC
  • International S.O.S.
  • US CIA fact pages.

Does anyone have any other sources for this type of information?

p.s. My company has a group that evaluates these issues, but I would much rather independently verify the information instead of taking someone’s word for it (someone with a vested interest).

#2

I used to travel globally for work, now not so much. My company is fairly large (70,000 employees) and provides employees with detailed information on the risks of traveling to specific countries, based on current conditions. They pull information from a variety of different places, official government sources and otherwise. I completely trust them. They have no interest in sending me someplace, whether short term or long term, that isn’t safe. YMMV.

#3

I have lived or worked in: UAE, Republic of Georgia, New Zealand, Thailand and Czech Republic. I lived outside the US for about 12 years and I’ve travelled in about 100 countries. I think that the UK Foreign Office has the best country reports for this sort of thing. I’m American and think the State Dept reports are far too paranoid.

#4

Check out Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to see what kind of issues the country is having - I use them a lot for asylum cases.

#5

The UK Foreign Office travel advice is usually pretty on the ball, as Nomad says.

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice

Obviously the consular arrangements will be different, but the general “Westerner abroad” type stuff is good.

#6

There are expatriate forums for a huge number of countries. Either read the forum and/or post questions there. You might do a Google search for
expatriate forum [name of country]