It looks like it will be yet another tourist-less summer for Lebanon.
The most recent travel advisories and warnings issued by the US and Canada warned against traveling to Lebanon. While the US urges its citizens to avoid all travel to Lebanon, Canada was more lenient and asked its citizens to avoid non-essential travel.
LEBANON – AVOID NON-ESSENTIAL TRAVEL
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada advises against non-essential travel to Lebanon due to heightened tensions and crime.
Ensure that your travel documents are up to date and register yourselves and your families online with the Registration of Canadians Abroad (ROCA) service in order to receive the latest advice from the Canadian embassy in Beirut.
Source: Foreign Affairs – Canada
April 01, 2013
The Department of State urges U.S. citizens to avoid all travel to Lebanon because of current safety and security concerns. U.S. citizens living and working in Lebanon should understand that they accept risks in remaining and should carefully consider those risks. This supersedes the Travel Warning issued on September 17, 2012, to emphasize information on security, kidnappings, and an upsurge in violence in Lebanon and the region.The potential in Lebanon for a spontaneous upsurge in violence remains. Lebanese government authorities are not able to guarantee protection for citizens or visitors to the country should violence erupt suddenly. Access to borders, airports, roads, and seaports can be interrupted with little or no warning. Public demonstrations occur frequently with little warning and have the potential to become violent. Family, neighborhood, or sectarian disputes often escalate quickly and can lead to gunfire or other violence with little or no warning. The ability of U.S. government personnel to reach travelers or provide emergency services may be severely limited.
Source: US Department of State
If you want to check out the most dangerous countries to visit this year, check out this [Map] and this [article].
Just more fear mongering from the west, these US embassy reports are sent out from time to time and never share anything new or important.
Seriously khalil? fear mongering? Where do you currently call home? Do they have daily kidnappings, RPG shootouts? Choppers/jets firing into your country; gunmen everywhere?
Gianni ya boukhschi dont come! stay there on ur heaven on earth! yalla zahhet!!
Typical idiot response. Get your head out of your ass. The report was simply stating facts, there was no fear mongering involved. Can you deny that disputes over irrelevant shit escalates quickly? Or that the authorities can’t do shit when things do escalate?
Jack,
Please stop spamming the blog.
jack…You are an idiot!
The US State Dept should seriously consider warning US citizens about travel to places like Detroit and St.Louis which just so happen to “look like Beirut” more than Beirut does these days. (hello to Jad Aoun)
source***
http://money.cnn.com/gallery/real_estate/2013/01/23/dangerous-cities/index.html
Yes,but for a small country Leb has a higher % of crimes and kidnappings than Detroit and St Louis ,poverty’s rampings making way for more kidnappings ,thefts and killings
http://beirutobserver.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=93041:2013-04-03-03-08-58&catid=41:2010-10-03-20-24-15
it seems serious :/
I have lived in Lebanon for the past 4 years and traveled here since 2004. There is risk and things, often quite petty things, can get out of hand rather quick…agreed. I’ve also felt more unsafe in various parts of the US more than here, only 1 time in 2004 did I feel that I was in an unsafe situation. It doesn’t mean people don’t “read the tea leaves” and stay up to date on current event and news, it doesn’t pay to be naive.
Where the problem lies is that the ACS reports never give new information, they just rehash old news over and over again. If the US wants to help Lebanon, “make it safer” for those that visit or work here then they need to do better on their policy with our neighbors south of the border and stop letting them violate Lebanese airspace. The foreign policy of the US is the tool that hurts the US more than anything. If the US embassy engaged the community the way the UK did we might see more positive regard of them here in Lebanon.
It is interesting that Canada made a comment on this now, but until things on the ground here actually change the ACS reports add nothing, a person who stays up to dates on current events would have more information at hand than what is sent out in those emails and notices. The good thing that does come out is it pushes people to register with the US safe travel program, something proactive in providing some assistance if it were to be needed.
Khalil,
thanks for your response; although you seem to have adopted the typical Lebanese mentality.”…only 1 time in 2004 did I feel that I was in an unsafe situation.”
You have only felt unsafe once as opposed to feeling safe always:D
Dude; I guess as typical Lebanese do; you reside and travel in a box not bigger than 20km by 40km…
I could go on forever; but ask the people who were walking down the street in Achrafieh, Verdun, Zouk and others how safe it was during the bombings and assassinations…2005 Valentine’s? 2008 May??? 2006 Israeli bombardment…and on and on…as I am not there you could go back on Blog baladi and read najib’s blog on this a while back…
One, I am not Lebanese…though I am married to one! And my experiences are just that, my experiences. Working with inner city children in the US was at times quite unsettling and I left work often wondering what the fallout of my decisions would be, for my life and the children’s lives I helped direct. There were times that I did feel like I was in a war zone, with gang members shooting at each other as I left my office. So while my experiences don’t relate completely with what the Lebanese had to endure for so many long years I can empathize. Plus, I have my extended family here and friends that can intimately share their stories, losses, and fears of what it was like to live in the middle of a civil war. I know the risks I take as a foreigner here and I weighed the costs in coming here. I could have kept a comfortable lifestyle and lived in “safety” back in the US, but I chose to come here to work in a great care center and serve some amazing children. When I said I only felt unsafe once, it was an experience that would have made me feel uncomfortable back in the US as well, so it wasn’t something uniquely Lebanese.
Again, my response was intended to point out that the US Embassy and its better late than never ACS reports don’t hold weight and as a person living abroad I’d be better served by collecting a variety of news services than relying on one source that says, “Lebanon…scary, don’t go there!”.
It isn’t my goal to paint an unreal picture of this country, but the ACS and Dept. of State don’t do Lebanon and the Americans living here any good by doing things the way they do.
Thanks for your response as well 🙂
Wow, this looks very serious! Anybody who has been to Lebanon lately and knows about the real current situation there? I am also interested in the specific parts which are dangerous. I may travel there for some days and it looks like it can´t be avoided.
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