Most dangerous destinations 2007

By Elisabeth Eaves

updated 6:12 p.m. ET Feb. 2, 2007

It’s no wonder the world seems to be getting more dangerous. After all, we’re bombarded every day by news of violence, natural disaster and the rising death toll in Iraq.

Sounds like a good reason to stay home, or at least take your vacations in Canada. But business travelers often have no choice. Where corporations go, so do their employees, sometimes even at risk to life and limb.

Fortunately, companies have a place to turn for know-how on bringing employees back alive. Risk consultancies such as Annapolis, Md.-based iJet Intelligent Risk Systems and London-based Control Risks specialize in advising corporations on staying safe in the world’s most dangerous places. Security contractors such as Triple Canopy, Blackwater USA and DynCorp International can provide physical protection just about anywhere in the world.

Based on the banner year risk consultants had in 2006, it would seem that the world really is getting less safe. As privately held companies, several of those we talked to wouldn’t disclose profits. But iJet--which has advised companies including Archer Daniels Midland  and Prudential Financial announced last week that revenues for 2006 had increased by more than 50% over 2005. Triple Canopy, meanwhile, opened new offices in Lagos, Abu Dhabi and Manila, and Control Risks added four new offices, including one in Hong Kong and another in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. DynCorp, whose clients include the U.S. government, went public last May.

How We Play A Role
Perhaps, though, it’s not more danger that’s helping these businesses thrive, but the fact that we put ourselves in harm’s way more often.

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“I wouldn’t say it’s a more dangerous world,” says James Smither, global issues manager for Control Risks. “I’d say the risks are changing. Civilians and business travelers are more in the firing line.”

For one thing, we go to more places we didn’t used to, thanks to globalization, easier and cheaper travel and, according to Smither, some very specific market forces.

For instance, prices for platinum, copper, aluminum and other metals are high because they serve as raw materials in industrial manufacturing, which is growing tremendously in India and China.

“So mining companies are looking at countries that previously would have been written off as too risky, because of the high price of metals,” Smither says.

AP Another new addition to our list, Chad is experiencing both tensions between the government and rebel groups, and interethnic fighting in the east, where the country borders the Darfur region of Sudan. The U.S. State Department reports an increase in the amount of highway banditry across the country and some harassment of American citizens at government roadway checkpoints.

That means these companies’ employees are heading for places such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country with extravagant natural wealth but also a long history of brutal government, where urban crime is high and some areas are dominated by local militias. Both Control Risk and iJet give Congo their highest risk rating, and the U.S. State Department warns citizens against traveling there.

Other countries on our most-dangerous list include Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Côte d’Ivoire, Pakistan and Burundi. Most are in the grip of conflict to one degree or another. For instance, a civil war that began in 1993 is ongoing in Burundi, with rebel factions engaging in intense fighting with government forces. In Somalia, the federal government recently retook much of the country from the Union of Islamic Courts, but remains weak and dependent on the backing of the Ethiopian army. And in Côte d’Ivoire, a 2002 uprising nominally ended in 2003, but the north of the country remains under the control of armed rebels.

In many of these places, conflict has tended to exacerbate lawlessness--in Iraq, for instance, criminal gangs operate alongside ideologically motivated insurgents. Other countries make our list mainly because of crime. Neither Liberia nor Haiti is technically at war, but rampant criminality can make parts of these countries feel like war zones.

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