There are some hotbeds of danger that exist in the world, places where it’s almost guaranteed
you’ll run into some kind of trouble if you spend enough time there – especially
if you are walking the streets at night alone.
Today we’ll look at some of these places, in this episode of the Infographics Show,
11 Unsafest Places to Live in the world?
This list will start with the least of the most dangerous places and move on to the worst,
but it’s by no means an exact science.
We should add that we are not just going to list homicide rates, but all kinds of daily
dangers for humans.
Right, let us begin:
11.
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia This might not be a dangerous city in terms
of getting shot, but from travel reviews we can see that walking about this city at night
can end up ruining your holiday.
According to an American who ran a bar in the capital, he never walked home at night.
He told the UK’s Independent newspaper that he advises all tourists to do the same.
Why?
Well, apparently the criminal-minded locals don’t always just want your money, they
may only want to beat the hell out of you.
According to one website that reviews places of where digital nomads can work abroad, the
reason is racism.
It wrote, “Ultra-nationalist Mongolian groups single out individuals with Caucasian, African
or Chinese features just because of the way they look.”
But then the comments section was worse, with some people who had visited saying stay away,
it’s really dangerous.
One guy wrote, “After living many years here in Mongolia, I have seen it all.
I don't leave the house without adequate ‘self-defense’.
He meant weapons.
10.
Baltimore, USA We wanted to put one U.S city on this list,
so we picked Baltimore.
If you watched the show The Wire, you will already know gang violence here is rife.
The show started years ago, but the violence continues.
According to some sources, it comes in the top five of highest murder rates for cities
in the U.S., at 5.14 per 10,000 people, but assaults and robberies are common.
The FBI in 2017 had it as the USA’s most dangerous city, with 98.6 violent crimes per
10,000 residents.
It all depends on where you are hanging out of course, but if you live here you have a
one in 56 chance of being a victim of crime.
As we have many American viewers, we thought we’d add one of their cities.
Now things will get a lot worse.
9.
Johannesburg, South Africa Again, it all depends on which neighborhoods
you are visiting.
We looked at places that people actually living in the city said you should really give a
wide berth.
But even downtown in some places locals say danger lurks.
One tourist said to the British media that he asked a guesthouse owner if he could go
out in search of food, as the guesthouse was closing its doors.
The owner replied, “Sorry jah.
It’s for your own safety.
We keep the doors locked after dark.
Go out there and you may not come back.”
If you look at murder rate statistics, the city isn’t really that bad.
It’s the assaults, robberies, rapes and car-hijackings you might watch out for.
One local said if you visit Joubert Park, Soweto, Yeoville, Sunnyside and Hillbrow,
you might find this kind of trouble.
Some locals say the crime is exaggerated, others say there are definitely no-go areas.
You might also watch some of the documentaries about slum life in nearby townships, where
street justice including burning tires around someone’s neck certainly doesn’t make
you want to stray from the beaten path.
This practice is called “necklacing” by the way.
Wherever a mob do that, we might call an unsafe place.
Not only because of the action, but because the local mob don’t feel they are protected
or supported by police.
8.
San Salvador, El Salvador With one of the highest murder rates in the
world and being the home of the notorious MS-13 gang, one might believe San Salvador
has some dangerous neighborhoods.
One source tells us those places are Calle Zacamil and the Calle Principal of Ilopango.
Let’s see what others think about that.
(Calle means “street” by the way).
One local said you’ll know when you are in a bad neighborhood as you’ll see maras
graffitis on the walls.
Other locals said stay close to where you see plenty of security, while the names Soyapango,
Ilopango, and Mejicanos kept popping up as places not to go.
Look at any forum and people will tell you that as a tourist you should not be wandering
around these places at night.
That’s not just friendly advice, but a critical warning.
7.
Mosul, Iraq There are so many places in the Middle East
many westerners don’t even think about visiting just because of ongoing conflicts and what
they have seen on the news.
But so many places in countries like Syria, Iraq, even Afghanistan, have some of the most
welcoming and friendly people you’ll ever meet.
But we’ve picked Mosul as our totally no-go area, a city in Iraq's Al Jazira region.
There may not be a high murder rate, and certainly no gang-bangers or people mainlining Fentanyl-laced
heroin on street corners, but there is ISIS nearby.
This is a wonderful and historical city, but we are also told that a trip there may well
lead to foreigners being in danger of kidnapping, murder, and other armed violence.
The city is now returning to normal and might be safer for residents, but we’d suggest
most people wait a while before going there by themselves.
6.
Iztapalapa, Mexico City, Mexico Ok, so you know there are places in Mexico
such as Los Cabos and Acapulco that have some of the highest murder rates in the world,
but those murders are almost always gangs against gangs.
You can still party in Acapulco and feel safe.
But in this neighborhood of this giant city, anyone can be a victim.
We are told criminals stalk the streets and assaults, robberies and rape are commonplace,
while the police are less than competent.
On a thread on Quora, Mexicans from Mexico City said don’t even walk around alone in
the daytime, never mind the night.
The funniest answer came from a Mexican engineer.
He said, “Don’t go there … even stray dogs have daggers and are ready to fight in
Iztapalapa.”
5.
Cité Soleil, Port-Au-Prince, Haiti Recent news reports tell us that this city,
at times called the most dangerous city on Earth, is cleaning itself up.
Around 500,000 people live in this slum, noted for its gang violence.
Mostly neglected by the Haitian government, crime was rife on any given day.
It can be colorful, but it’s also very impoverished.
While many efforts by residents have been made to make Cite Soleil a sunnier place to
visit, crime is still rampant.
The U.S. government says it doesn’t have many statistics on crimes against foreigners
there, only because foreigners just don’t go there.
We are told robberies are common, as is car hijacking, and if you put up a fight, murder.
We are also told the criminals don’t have much to fear, as they know police won’t
be around to help the victims.
4.
Kingston, Jamaica Now Jamaica, this is a country where many
tourists flock each year.
Many of those, though, don’t stray too far from their resort or if they do they are careful
where they go or are in a tour group of some kind.
Crime against tourists might be just a casual pickpocketing in places such as Montego Bay
or Negril, but in parts of Kingston things can get very real.
Forbes also tells us Jamaica is the third most dangerous place for women to visit because
of sexual assaults.
One person on a forum said when he does business in Kingston he will not go anywhere without
an armed guard!
Some others say they visit, but leave parts of the city out such as Spanish Town.
Other travel websites just say give Kingston a miss as violence is rampant on any given
day.
Go out for an all-nighter in Spanish Town as a newcomer, well, you might not get home
in one piece.
The British government tells us violence is so bad in the Denham town area and other areas
in West Kingston that Jamaica has special forces patrolling the streets.
3.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Ah Rio, a city so colorful and in places so
rich and extravagant.
It’s also home to an astounding level of inequality.
We might remember one way the police there attempted to deal with this inequality in
the past, and that was by indiscriminately shooting the so-called lowlifes that hung
around on the streets.
But where does the worst happen?
That would be in the favelas, low-income areas that might also resemble slums in parts.
In 2017, a British woman accidentally strayed into a favela in Angra dos Reis and was shot
twice in the stomach.
She had three kids with her, too, and was apparently just looking for some water.
The men who shot her wanted her car.
The British government says, “All favelas are unpredictably dangerous areas, and remain
high risk given the level of violence within them,” and that’s despite some tour groups
being taken into some of them.
The gangs usually avoid hurting tourists, but obviously not all the time as the British
woman and her frightened kids found out.
What is the worst of them?
We are told the Vila Cruzeiro slum is like a war zone.
Rocinha is no holiday camp, either, but we are sure our Brazilian viewers can tell us
more.
Like many other places on this list, you won’t find people talking about their experience
visiting these slums, because they just don’t go there alone.
2.
San Pedro Sula, Honduras Honduras is rife with gangs and gang-related
murder.
San Pedro Sula is the second largest city in the country and obviously has some pretty
parts, just as Rio de Janeiro hides its darker places.
But this place was the murder capital of the world until recently, topped by the next place
we will talk about.
There is extreme poverty, and so younger men look for other ways to make money.
This has led to massive crime and most of it related to getting drugs to the USA.
The LA Times tells us, “The homicide rate is stoked by the rivalry of the brutal street
gangs, mostly descendants of gangs formed in Los Angeles and deported to Central America
in the 1990s, including Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and the 18th Street gang.”
The violence is usually gang vs gang, but don’t go thinking you can just stroll through
a gang neighborhood.
Military Police patrol some streets, but even they don’t go into the worst neighborhoods,
according to one organization.
On Quora Hondurans said the worst places are in the center, and if you go out there at
night you WILL find trouble.
Another local said, “Avoid public transportation like the plague.”
1.
Caracas, Venezuela Right now, one of the most dangerous places
to live in the world is Caracas.
You can find forums with former visitors (who don’t go anymore and used to love it) as
well as locals saying you face danger as soon as you leave the airport and you will throughout
your trip.
Again, despair and gang violence and poverty have led many towards a life of crime.
Gangs may be after gangs, but reports suggest they won’t just let tourists go, either.
Apparently, the roughest part of the city are the Favelas (barrios) of Petare and Catia.
On Quora a man called Carlos Eduardo López Ferrer, who actually lives in the city, said,
“There are no good neighborhoods in Caracas.
You could be mugged, killed for a pair shoes, or specially, kidnapped, anywhere in the city,
any time of the day.”
Other locals said there were some good places, but admitted that unlike most big cities danger
is everywhere now in Caracas.
There are nice robbers, too, though.
One traveler says he was held up with a gun in his face, and they took everything.
But when he asked if he could have enough to pay the airport taxes they threw him the
right amount back.
“My robbers gave me a tip for being robbed,” he wrote.
How kind!
It gets our number one spot because not only would the barrios be terribly unsafe, but
it seems you can’t escape the crime anywhere.
Locals and travelers seem to agree on this point, which makes it all the more scary.
The only question we want to ask you is have you been to any of these places or do you
live there?
What is or was your experience?
Are the reports exaggerated, or are things even worse?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video Most Dangerous American Schools.
Thanks for watching, and as always, please don’t forget to like, share and subscribe.
See you next time!