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Advice on staying safe overseas

A Planning, and situation awareness on the ground, are key to your safety when travelling overseas. If you do these things properly then 99 per cent of the issues you hear other people being caught up in won’t affect you because you are already one step ahead.

Think about your profile – if you stand out by wearing blingy jewellery, for example, you will attract more attention, and there is more chance that someone will attack you.

Analyse where and when you are going, what it is you will be doing, what your journey will be like and how long you will be there. Then do your research – use the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice) or the US Department of State’s travel portal (state.gov/travel). News sites such as aljazeera.com are effective at presenting the real picture of what is going on.

You can ask hotels for advice, but take it with a pinch of salt. They are thinking of their business – they don’t want to frighten people away. If we were looking after you, we would brief you before you went, and then again when you got there – one of our commanders would tell you what to do if certain situations arose. But you can’t be reliant on us – you have to think for yourself. Your safety is your responsibility.

Two delegates we trained were caught up in Nairobi’s Westgate mall shootings in 2013. They heard the gunfire and explosions, and instead of panicking went back to what we had told them – they turned their phones to silent in case it alerted one of the terrorists, then successfully moved their way out of the building, having noted where the fire exits were and taking cover.

The most risky countries at the moment are Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Syria and Yemen. But if you are going somewhere on business that may appear to be okay, there might still be crime. In Johannesburg, for example, the risk of being carjacked or express kidnapped – where you are repeatedly taken to a cash machine over several days to withdraw as much money as you can from your bank account – is high. Equally, there are plenty of muggings and knife crime incidents in cities such as Paris, Brussels or Barcelona.

Do a threat assessment before you go and take the necessary precautions – you could do an online or a practical training course. Even when you are on the ground, continue planning – is the situation changing? You might step out of your hotel and find you’re involved in a civil protest because you have not kept abreast of the news.

Your taxi driver could decide to take a shortcut, and you trust him because he’s a local. They don’t see the risk of going into a certain part of town, but for expats it’s different. You may find yourself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Find a reputable company and get them to stick to the plan. Anticipate getting stuck in traffic and, if so, where? Will it be dangerous? Don’t hand over all responsibility to the driver.

Another important thing to do is contingency planning – what if the taxi doesn’t turn up? You don’t want to land late at night in a foreign country when your phone has died. Carry a spare battery, an alternative communication device and change for payphones. Do you need a satellite phone? Where is the best hospital? Make sure you have lists of telephone numbers for the people you are meeting, plus copies of your passport and visas.

Have an escalation procedure – how often are you going to phone the office to let them know you are okay? Your colleagues also need to know what to do if you haven’t called. Let the people on the ground know what you are doing as well. If you change your itinerary, communicate that. Think about your equipment – what are you going to take with you if there is a fire? Have a grab-bag ready with your essentials in it.

Most people are under-prepared – they think: ‘I have been travelling for ten years and it hasn’t happened to me.’ You have to think: ‘It could happen at any time.’ People think they don’t have time to plan, but once you get into the mindset, it gets easier.

You can’t be reliant on us – you have to think for yourself. Your safety is your responsibility