Should You Wait for a State Department Order to Evacuate Under International Duress?

Why doesn’t travel insurance cover evacuation during a coup?

For organizations sending personnel into dynamic international environments, the belief that standard travel insurance will cover every unforeseen emergency can be a dangerous misconception.

The Core Purpose of Standard Travel Insurance

Standard travel insurance policies are primarily designed to cover personal travel risks. Their focus is typically on:

• Medical Emergencies: Unexpected illness or injury, including emergency medical treatment and transport to a capable medical facility.
• Trip Interruptions/Cancellations: Financial protection against unforeseen events that force a traveler to cancel or cut short their trip.
• Lost Baggage: Coverage for baggage delays, loss, or theft.
• Travel Delays: Benefits for unexpected delays due to airline issues or other common travel disruptions.

While many travel insurance policies do include a medical evacuation benefit, this is specifically for medical reasons. If you fall ill and need to be moved to a better hospital, that’s covered. However, if the reason for evacuation is a sudden shift in the security landscape due to political upheaval, typical travel insurance often falls short.

The Missing Piece: Security Evacuation Triggers

The key to understanding why most travel insurance doesn’t cover evacuations during a coup lies in its triggering conditions for evacuation. The evacuation benefit in standard travel insurance is almost exclusively tied to a medical necessity. An individual must be injured or gravely ill, and local medical facilities must be deemed inadequate.

Even if the environment becomes incredibly dangerous due to a coup, if the individual is not medically incapacitated, a standard travel insurance policy’s evacuation benefit will not activate.

The Real-World Impact: Delays and Direct Costs

When personnel are in a country experiencing a coup and relying solely on standard travel insurance, the consequences can be severe:

• Dangerous Delays: The ministry might find its personnel trapped in a deteriorating security situation.
• Unbudgeted Expenses: Faced with an urgent need to remove personnel from harm’s way, the organization will be forced to fund a security evacuation entirely out of pocket.
• Lack of Crisis Management Support: Standard travel insurance does not provide access to the specialized crisis response firms that guide organizations through complex security incidents.

What to Do Instead: Securing Comprehensive Crisis Coverage

To ensure personnel are genuinely protected during events like a coup, organizations need coverage specifically designed for security evacuations:

1. Kidnap & Ransom (K&R) Insurance: Beyond covering ransom payments, K&R policies have broader triggers, often allowing for evacuation based on a determination between the organization and the crisis response firm that an area has become too dangerous, even without official government orders.
2. Foreign Voluntary Workers’ Compensation (FVWC): While primarily for employees and occupational risks, some FVWC policies may include security evacuation riders or benefits.

For any ministry operating in regions where political volatility is a factor, understanding the limitations of standard travel insurance is indispensable. When a coup comes, don’t just rely on travel insurance- be prepared.

Watch a video on Kidnap and Ransom insurance here.

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