Top 10 Countries You Should Never Visit 10. Venezuela If there was a competition for country most-likely
to tip into civil war in the near future, the winner would probably be Venezuela. The Latin American socialist state boasts
some of the most-spectacular natural wonders on Earth, more history than you can shake
a proverbial stick at… and a president who seems hell-bent on driving his nation into
the ground. Soaring inflation has left essentials like
medicine, toilet roll and food all but unaffordable. The average Venezuelan lost 19 pounds due
to food shortages last year. There are rolling blackouts, paralyzing strikes,
and pitched street battles in the capital, Caracas, between protestors and security forces
that have killed nearly 40 in 2017 alone. And did we mention the violence? The murder rate is off the charts. As many as 28,875 people may have been homicide
victims in 2015, from a population of 31.1 million. That would put modern Venezuela on a footing
with Colombia at the height of its drug-fueled civil war. The list goes on. The US State Department has a hair-raising
account of mass-kidnappings, robbery with assault rifles, grenade attacks, and murderous
criminal gangs targeting tourists. Despite all this, though, Venezuela’s crisis
may yet be solved. If or when it is, one of the most-beautiful
nations on Earth will once again be free for the rest of us to visit. 9. North Korea Perhaps the most-isolated state, North Korea
(DPRK) is also the one most-likely to disappear in a cloud of burning ash and nuclear fallout. Since coming to power after his father’s
death, rogue dictator Kim Jong Un has tested 3 nuclear devices aimed at freaking out the
international community. It has certainly worked. At time of writing, a war of words with the
US seems in danger of spiraling into an actual war. One that could get very, very messy. But let’s ignore all that for a second. Even if no devastating war comes, visiting
the DPRK still isn’t one of the greatest ideas. The Kim regime directly profits from all outside
visitors. That profit goes towards keeping a network
of concentration camps in operation that the UN has called similar to Nazi Germany. Others have said they’re even worse. Crimes by one member of a family can result
in everyone being interred, and for their descendants and their descendants’ descendants
being worked to death. Tourism helps keep this decadent world ticking
over. Then there’s the issue of personal safety. The DPRK has a habit of arresting US citizens
during politically convenient times (editor’s note: this was written even before a US citizen
was detained just this weekend), even when they haven’t committed any crimes. Given what we know about North Korean prisons,
maybe it’s better to stay away altogether. 8. El Salvador Since it overtook Honduras in 2015, El Salvador
has had the highest murder rate in the entire world. The pint-sized Central American nation – roughly
the size of Wales – has been a killer’s paradise for years. The murder rate in 2016 was 91 killings per
100,000, higher even than in Venezuela. The capital, San Salvador, recorded 137 homicides
per 100,000. This was down from a staggering 190 in 2015. By way of comparison, the global average homicide
rate is a mere 6.2. In 2015, you were over 200 times more likely
to be murdered in El Salvador than you were in somewhere like Great Britain. Interestingly, as a foreigner, you’re less
likely to be targeted than a native. Most violence occurs between street gangs,
and kidnappers tend to focus on snatching wealthy Salvadorians rather than gringo backpackers. Hence why we’ve put it way up here at number
8, above countries with demonstrably lower murder rates. However, don’t let its ranking lull you
into a false sense of security. Notorious street gangs like MS-13 have been
known to target random buses and brutally slaughter everyone onboard, simply because
the vehicle’s owner refused to pay an extortion fee. 7. Afghanistan Afghanistan has been a basket case for so
long now, it’s almost hard to believe it was once a laidback highlight of the “Hippy
Trail” between London and Melbourne. Since then, it has become synonymous with
bad times and brutality. Even today, 15 years after the fall of the
Taliban, this Texas-sized nation of 32.5 million is
still the sort of place where you don’t wanna travel without making prior funeral
arrangements. The causes are as familiar as they are depressing. Radical Islamist insurgents and mad warlords
are running rampant over huge swathes of the country. The Taliban are experiencing a resurgence. Petty kidnappers are still addicted to the
idea of whisking careless visitors away for ransom. In a show of strength, militants recently
managed to storm an Afghan army hospital, slaughtering nearly 40. There are suicide bombings, homicides, and
general nastiness galore. Many governments advise against staying in
hotels or visiting restaurants in case you end you evening messily splattered across
an area the size of a football pitch. At times, it can seem like peace will never
return to Afghanistan. While we’ve no doubt things will one day
settle down, that one day could be very far away indeed. Until it arrives, you’ll just have to content
yourself with pictures of this tragically beautiful nation. 6. Iraq Huge swathes of Iraq are still under the control
of ISIS’s monstrous caliphate. Even in areas under Iraqi government control,
they’ve got a grim track record of attacking and killing hundreds. And you better believe they target foreigners. According to the UK government, non-Iraqis
living or working in Baghdad are considered “high value targets.” That means heightened risk of death, kidnapping,
or even worse. To be perfectly frank, traveling to Iraq at
this time is more-or-less equivalent to just lying down in a coffin and shouting at people
to bury you now. Even the stable, autonomous region of Iraqi
Kurdistan infrequently suffers car bombings and attacks that would be massive news in
almost every other country in the world, but barely raise a flicker of an eyebrow there. What’s especially heartbreaking about all
this is that Iraq was once a paradise. The fertile marshlands between the ancient
Euphrates and Tigris rivers are believed to have even been the location of the Biblical
Garden of Eden. To see it now is to see a region that has
fallen a long, long way. 5. Central African Republic (CAR) OK, this is the point where we move away from
‘the countries you probably shouldn’t visit’, and move onto ‘the countries you
should definitely stay away from under any circumstances’. These countries all have no consular assistance
for visiting Westerners, and most government websites warn against visiting them even if
you absolutely have to. The reason? Extreme violence, or the threat of extreme
violence accompanied by a breakdown of the social fabric so total it’d make Iraq look
like a tourist’s paradise. First on this list of terror? Central African Republic (CAR). A nation nearly the size of Texas, CAR is
home to a mere 4.9 million people, all of whom are desperate to kill one another. The population is divided between Christian
and Muslim communities, both of whom take turns seizing power and trying to eliminate
the other. In 2013, it was the Muslims’ turn to persecute
(read: kill) the Christians. In response, the Christians formed heavily-armed
‘anti-bakala’ militias and now they’re the ones doing the persecuting. The whole situation is as volatile as a washing
machine full of homebrewed nitroglycerin, and just as likely to explode at any moment. On top of all this, CAR is an extremely-poor,
nearly undeveloped country, where getting around is next to impossible and most of the
country is covered in impenetrable jungle. So, if everything does ignite while you’re
there, getting away is gonna be very difficult indeed. 4. South Sudan Another country that’s helpfully close-enough
in size to Texas to allow easy comparisons, South Sudan is also the world’s newest nation. In 2011, the Christian country split from
Muslim Sudan, declared independence and set up a capital in Juba. The wave of optimism this generated barely
lasted 24 hours. The new government quickly fractured along
ethnic and tribal lines and spiraled into a civil war that killed tens of thousands. Although the war is now over, South Sudan’s
peace remains so fragile that traveling there is like wrapping your body in bacon, jumping
in a piranha tank, and inviting them to chew. Militias continue to terrify the country,
with rival tribes using rape as a weapon to subdue their enemies. There are natural disasters to contend with,
too. A miserable famine has gripped the country
since the start of the year, and tens of thousands are at risk of starvation. Things are so bad that the UN has called the
famine (along with similar famines in Yemen, Somalia and Nigeria) “the worst humanitarian
crisis since 1945.” Oh, and if you were to visit, there’s no
guarantee you’d be able to leave. Last time a political crisis erupted, the
borders were effectively sealed and the Juba airport closed, trapping visitors inside an
exploding warzone. 3. Libya Right, so we’ve now gone beyond the ‘countries
you should definitely stay away from under any circumstances’ and entered a section
of the list we’re gonna call ‘Jesus, you gotta be kidding me!’ Without exception, these three countries are
in the grip of wars that have left no region untouched. Libya is merely the first of them. Once a sweltering north African country known
for its stunning Roman ruins, Libya deposed its mad dictator in 2011 and tried to make
it as a democracy. Instead, everything went to Hell. There are at least two rival governments currently
operating in the country, backed by different superpowers. An uncountable number of militias and rebel
groups roam the countryside. ISIS have carved out a niche for themselves,
despite heavy airstrikes against their camps. Terror attacks, skirmishes, and deadly fighting
are all just facts of daily life. At least 6,000 have died in the continued
fighting since 2014, on top of all those who died in the initial 2011 uprising and its
aftermath. Westerners have been kidnapped or killed with
impunity. Famously, this included US ambassador J. Christopher
Stevens, the first American ambassador killed in the line of duty in 33 years. Luckily, though, there are signs that things
may be changing in Libya for the better. On May 3, 2017, a diplomatic breakthrough
was reached between the rival governments. Hopefully, things in this beleaguered nation
will soon be returning to something like normalcy. 2. Yemen To look at pictures of Yemen’s capital of
old Sana’a these days is like looking at a lost tale from the Arabian Nights. Yemen has always been poor, but it used to
be justifiably recognized as one of the most picturesque, dream-like places on the planet. It was a land of history, of great, jagged
mountains, ancient clifftop ruins, rocky deserts and fertile valleys. Today, though, Yemen is a land of violent
rebel groups, uncontrollable disorder, and Saudi airstrikes that have left thousands
dead and tens of thousands hideously wounded. A strip of land below Saudi Arabia, roughly
the size of metropolitan France, Yemen has been the focus of an intense bombing campaign
by its bigger neighbor since late 2015. Rather than de-escalate the civil war and
bring the Islamist rebels to justice, it sent the conflict into overdrive. January 2017 saw the 10,000th victim die,
and large tracts of Sana’a’s hypnotic old city reduced to dust amid heavy shelling. With no end to the conflict in sight, Yemen
will likely remain off everyone’s travel list for some time to come, which may be for
the best. To see the wreck this once-wonderful country
has become would be enough to make any visitor’s blood boil. 1. Syria What other country could it possibly be? Right now, Syria is the most-dangerous place
in the world. If you can go, don’t. If you need to go, don’t. If you’re already there, get out as quickly
and as safely as you can. That’s the sort of place we’re talking
about here. A country where basic humanity has broken
down, and demons now run amok in human form, doing things too terrible for us to even write
about. If Hell has a physical manifestation, then
it’s probably the frontlines of Syria’s awful conflict. Since 2011, rebels, regime forces, militias,
terror groups, and insane jihadists like ISIS have been murdering one another in a humanitarian
black hole that has left between 320,000 and 500,000 dead. Torture, chemical weapons, genocide… you
name it, if it exists and it is awful, it can currently be found in Syria. Perhaps the worst part is there doesn’t
seem to be any easy way out. So many international actors are meddling
in the Syrian conflict that an easy solution seems impossible. Russia is bombing rebel territory. Turkey is bombing Kurdish positions. France, the US and Britain are bombing ISIS,
and the US recently bombed a regime airbase too. Iran and Saudi Arabia are meddling. Hezbollah and al-Qaeda are involved. Maybe one day this intractable mess will be
solved, but don’t count on it happening any time soon.
