When traveling abroad, the top concern for many Americans is safety.
Whether it is due to ongoing conflict, special events such as the 2024 Paris Olympics, natural disasters like a volcano currently erupting in Iceland or an uptick in crime, conditions of countries can change rapidly, affecting both travelers and locals.
To help keep American travelers safe, the U.S. Department of State issues and maintains travel advisories for U.S. citizens based on current circumstances.
These advisories can be particularly helpful for first-time and younger travelers, though the agency encourages all people to review them for their desired destination ahead of travel.
Although travel warnings originate from the State Department and live on its website, they are a joint effort between the State Department's Office of Overseas Citizens Services and U.S. consulates and embassies worldwide.
"We've got our diplomats and consular officers on the ground in all those places, who have more up-to-date information than anyone in Washington could have," said Angela Kerwin, deputy assistant secretary for Overseas Citizens Services, during a Zoom interview Thursday. "But we use a variety of information in order to look at the criteria that go into our travel advisories around the world."
In addition to crime reports, nongovernmental organization reports and those from international organizations such as the United Nations, the government considers nine risk factors in determining the level at which each country's advisory should be set:
Although the most recently added category, Wrongful Detention, only applies to a handful of countries, it's an important criterion for travelers to note when a country has detained a U.S. citizen without cause.
Based on that nine-rubric system, plus reports and input from U.S. consulates and embassies in these countries, the agency assigns each country a Level 1 to 4 tiered warning, with 1 being the lowest level, indicating relative safety, and 4 being the highest, meaning travelers should not visit.
This is the lowest level a country can achieve, making it among the safest for Americans to visit. As with any travel, there is always some risk, so every country will always have at least a Level 1 advisory.
Under a Level 2 designation, a country has increased safety or security risks, but they likely won't preclude you from traveling there.
A Level 3 advisory tells travelers to potentially defer trips to the country in question, as serious potential risks exist.
The most serious advisories are Level 4 recommendations, which alert you to avoid travel to designated countries and areas due to a greater threat of potentially life-threatening risks and limited resources to help Americans.
The website maxtravelz.com is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.
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