Top Most Dangerous Assignments in the Foreign Service

The danger pay allowance is designed to provide additional compensation above basic compensation to all U.S. Government civilian employees, including Chiefs of Mission, for service at places in foreign areas where there exist conditions of civil insurrection, civil war, terrorism or wartime conditions which threaten physical harm or imminent danger to the health or well-being of an employee. These conditions do not include acts characterized chiefly as economic crime.

Below is a list of the top most dangerous assignments in the Foreign Service; alphabetic list based on government danger pay rates as of July 2009. See this document for the danger pay factors used by State.

35%

AFGHANISTAN: Kabul, Other

IRAQ: Baghdad, Northern Iraq, Other

PAKISTAN: Islamabad, Karachi, Peshawar

30%

LEBANON: Beirut, Other

YEMEN: Sanaa, Other

25%

ALGERIA: Other

JERUSALEM: West Bank

PAKISTAN: Lahore, Quetta

SAUDI ARABIA: Taif, Jeddah

SOMALIA: Mogadishu, Other

SUDAN: Juba, Khartoum, Other

20%

BURUNDI: Bujumbura

HAITI: Cap Haitien, Petionville, Port-au-Prince, Other

ISRAEL: Karmi'el, Tel Aviv

JERUSALEM: Jerusalem

KOSOVO: Pristina, Other

SAUDI ARABIA: Al-Khobar, Dammam, Dhahran Area

See the FAQ on Danger Pay (Also see DSSR Chapter 650). To view the full list of danger posts with its allowances, click here.

Top Hardship Assignments in the Foreign Service

Hardship differential pay is additional compensation of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 or 35 percent over basic compensation for service at places in foreign areas where conditions of environment differ substantially from conditions of environment in the United States.

A hardship differential is established for any place when, and only when, the place involves extraordinarily difficult living conditions, excessive physical hardship, or notably unhealthful conditions affecting the majority of employees officially stationed or detailed at that place. Living costs are not considered in differential determination.

This allowance varies from post to post because conditions can be different even in the same country. For instance, some of the medical facilities may be worse at one post than conditions in the rest of the country (where there are constituent posts), or there could be high crime rates and/or political violence at the capital city compared to other locations in a specific country. To start with, a 5% hardship post can mean washing/soaking fresh produce in Clorox, sporadic availability of electricity, or rationed non-drinking water as part of daily life (e.g. no bath, 5-min showers only; laundry twice a week, etc.etc.). Factors considered in the hardship differential pay are in Form DS-267, Post Differential Questionnaire, but I cannot find an Internet copy of the document to link to.

35%

AFGHANISTAN [Kabul, Other]; IRAQ [Baghdad, Other]; REPUBLIC OF EQUATORIA [Malabo, Other]; TAJIKISTAN [Dushanbe, Other]; TIMOR-LESTE [Timor-Liste]

You go to Afghanistan and you get 35% over basic compensation. Why? I don’t have the worksheet that State uses to compute this differential but just quickly -- besides the fact the Afghanistan is a war zone, well-equipped medical facilities are few and far between throughout Afghanistan. The USG tells Americans that Afghan public hospitals should be avoided and that tuberculosis is an increasingly serious health concern in the country. What else? Afghanistan's economy operates on a "cash-only" basis for most transactions. Credit card transactions are not available there, local telephone networks do not operate reliably and most people rely on satellite or cellular telephone communications even to make local calls. There's more. Apparently almost all water is contaminated, and dysentery is endemic among Afghans and very common among foreigners. Garbage is often tossed over compound walls and into open ditches and streams, which serve as water sources for home use. Fruits and vegetables for sale in the bazaar are washed in the open ditches. If you're one of the hardy folks serving in Afghanistan, please email us and let us know that you're not eating Spam and stale white plastic bread?

Iraq? Iraq is still a place where just driving somewhere could get you blown up. The USG tells Americans that vehicular travel in Iraq can be extremely dangerous. There have been numerous attacks on civilian vehicles, as well as military convoys. Attacks occur throughout the day, but travel at night is exceptionally dangerous and should be avoided. Basic modern medical care and medicines are not widely available in Iraq. The facilities in operation do not meet U.S. standards, and the majority lack medicines, equipment and supplies. Because the Baghdad International Airport has limited operations for security reasons, it is unlikely that a private medical evacuation can be arranged. Oh yeah, limited ATMs, limited communication systems, and dust storms…

And there’s this: illnesses common to this region are gastro- intestinal complaints including traveler’s diarrhea, heat related illnesses, sinus infection, frequent upper respiratory infection and irritation (commonly referred to as the Crud), nosebleeds and allergies. Two insect borne diseases that can occur in this region are leishmaniasis (sand fly bite causing skin sores) and schistosomiasis (parasitic infection from swimming/bathing in contaminated fresh water sources) disease.

Equatorial Guinea apparently is not a place to start up a career in photo journalism (take note if you’re a trailing partner). Special permits from the Ministry of Information and Tourism (or from the local delegation if outside Malabo) are required for virtually all types of photography. It has a strictly cash economy; credit cards and checks are not accepted; credit card cash advances are not available and there are no ATMs. In addition, most local businesses do not accept travelers' checks, dollars or euros. And there’s this: There are periodic outbreaks of cholera in Equatorial Guinea. And if that is not bad enough -- plasmodium falciparum malaria, the type that predominates in Equatorial Guinea, is resistant to the anti-malarial drug chloroquine.

Tajikistan remains the poorest of the former Soviet republics in Central Asia. The country’s medical infrastructure is significantly below Western standards, with severe shortages of basic medical supplies, including disposable needles, anesthetics, and antibiotics. There have been outbreaks of typhoid in the Dushanbe area and in the south, and the risk of contracting malaria, cholera, and water-borne illnesses is high. Throughout Central Asia, rates of infection of various forms of hepatitis and tuberculosis (including drug-resistant strains) are on the rise. There’s more. Tajikistan has a cash-only economy. International banking services are limited. Oh yeah -- criminal groups and terrorists do not distinguish between official and civilian targets… it is also an earthquake-prone country.

Timor-Liste has some good beaches; surely it does not merit a 35% hardship rate? Let’s see – although limited emergency medical care is available in Dili, options for routine medical care throughout the country are extremely limited. That said, almost all maladies of the developing world are found there. Residents are subject to water and food-borne illnesses such as typhoid, hepatitis, cholera, worms, amebiasis, and bacterial dysentery. Mosquito-borne malaria, Dengue, and Chikungunya fever exists throughout East Timor. Respiratory illnesses are common. Asthma problems are generally worse during a tour here, as are any other respiratory or skin allergies. Dental care, such as cleaning, repairs of dental cavities, root canal, and bridgework cannot be performed in Dili. The main city has no optometrists or ophthalmologists of reasonable quality. Thinking of starting a family? The cost of diapers averages around $1 per diaper. There’s more. Gang-related violence occurs sporadically in Dili, and Americans risk intentional or inadvertent injury when traveling in affected areas. Public transport is generally inadvisable and is unavailable after dark. Electricity, telephone and telecommunications, roads and lodging remain unreliable. Oh yeah, it costs approximately $1.50 to $2.00 for each 15-minute block of time for broadband service.

30%

ANGOLA [Other]; BANGLADESH [Dhaka, Other]; BURMA [Rangoon, Other]; CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC [Bangui, Other]; CHAD [Ndjamena, Other]; CHINA [Nanjing, Other, Shenyang, Wuhan]; CUBA [Havana]; DJIBOUTI [Djibouti City, Other]; ERITREA [Asmara, Other]; ETHIOPIA [Other]; GEORGIA [Tbilisi, Other]; GUINEA [Conakry, Other]; INDONESIA [Bandung, Medan, Other]; KENYA [Nairobi, Other]; LAOS [Vientiane, Other]; LIBERIA [Monrovia, Other]; PAKISTAN [Karachi, Peshawar]; PAPUA NEW GUINEA [Port Moresby]; RUSSIA [Sakhalin Island, Vladivostok]; SIERRA LEONE [Freetown, Other]; TURKMENISTAN [Ashgabat, Other]; UZBEKISTAN [Tashkent, Other]; ZIMBABWE [Harare, Other].

25%

ANGOLA [Luanda]; ANTARCTIC REGION POSTS; ARCTIC CIRCLE POSTS; ARMENIA [Yerevan, Other]; AZERBAIJAN [Baku, Other]; BELARUS [Minsk, Other]; BENIN (Other]; BURKINA FASO [Other]; BURUNDI [Bujumbura, Other]; CAMBODIA [Phnom Penh, Other]; CAMEROON [Yaounde, Other]; CAPE VERDE [Praia,Other]; CHINA [Chengdu, Guangzhou]; COTE D'IVOIRE [Other]; DEM. PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA [Pyongyang, Other]; DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO [Kinshasa, Other]; ETHIOPIA [Addis Ababa]; GABON [Other]; GRENADA [Nuuk, Grenada, Other]; GUINEA-BISSAU [Bissau, Other]; GUYANA [Georgetown, Other]; HAITI [Port-au-Prince, Petionville, Other]; GHANA [Accra, Other]; INDIA [Hyderabad, Kolkata, Other]; INDONESIA [Jakarta]; KAZAKHSTAN [Almaty, Astana]; KYRGYZSTAN [Bishkek, Other]; LEBANON [Beirut, Other]; MADAGASCAR [Antananarivo, Other]; MALAWI [Lilongwe, Other]; MALI [Bamako, Other]; MAURITANIA [Nouakchott]; MONGOLIA [Ulaanbaatar, Other]; MOZAMBIQUE [Maputo, Other]; NEPAL [Kathmandu, Other]; NIGER [Other]; NIGERIA [Abuja, Lagos, Other]; OMAN [Other]; PAKISTAN [Lahore, Other]; PAPUA NEW GUINEA [Other]; REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO [Brazzaville]; RUSSIA [Other, Yekaterinburg]; RWANDA [Kigali, Other]; SAO TOME & PRINCIPE; SUDAN [Juba, Khartoum, Other]; SURINAME [Paramaribo, Other]; SYRIA [Other]; TANZANIA [Dar Es Salaam, Other]; TOGO [Lome, Other]; UGANDA [Kampala, Other]; VIETNAM [Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Other]; ZAMBIA [Other]

Post Hardship Differential FAQ (Also see DSSR Chapter 500). See the full list of hardship differential posts here.

Time for a Real Post of the Month?

TSB over at The Skeptical Bureaucrat recently wrote Where The Pants Are Not Striped, and Cookies Are Not Pushed (thanks for the inline mention TSB!) in response to the article on the Overseas Pay Gap. You can read the original WaPo article here and a couple of blog posts here and here.

TSB noted that the official mentioned in the WaPo article had served in the Central African Republic and went on to give us an enviable peek of life in the CAR. I honestly wished this one was included in that WaPo article to give that piece some super smackeroo jumperoo flavor:

I normally object to the term 'third world hell-hole,' but in the case of the CAR it applies, and then some. First of all, the place is isolated. Joseph Conrad wrote his great novel Heart of Darkness about a scary expedition up the Congo River to the uncharted center of the Dark Continent, but that Belgian trading post where his protagonist met Mr. Kurtz wasn't the true center. If you go up the Congo River to Conrad's metaphorical Heart of Darkness and then keep going, you will reach its tributary, the Oubangui River, and eventually arrive at the true center of Africa in Bangui, capital city of the CAR. Even by air, the CAR is isolated, with only a few weekly flights. On the day I was due to leave, I didn't bother going to the airport, since flight schedules meant less than nothing, but instead stayed at the embassy through the night and occasionally called the airport control tower to ask if they saw a plane on their radar yet.

Having seen the U.S. embassy offices and houses in Bangui, and experienced the difficulties and uncertainties of simply getting there and back, I can assure my fellow Americans that Senator Coburn's lowliest intern wouldn't want to trade life styles with the most senior diplomat there, even with the housing allowance. Much less would he want to trade places with the diplomats in the hot-spot that I was happy to drive away from at high speed last week.

Maybe there should be a Truth Squad counterpart to State Magazine's happy-talk Post of the Month feature?

I thought once that a Post Crisis of the Month page would be appropriate. But that might be a bit too much - so how about a Real Post of the Month? Last month while the Somalian pirates were all over the news, and while Peshawar was on the target mark, we had Belfast for Post of the Month. Belfast! In October, we had Amsterdam (Beyond Canals and Tulips). I recognized that the magazine has a lead up of approximately two months but some of those entries could be postponed for 3-6 months and it won't make a difference except ruin the editorial calendar.

And really, all this "happy-talk" is not doing us any favors; they need to rethink the purpose of that rag. After reading this staple magazine feature, one critic accused our diplomats of living in an alternate universe:

"The State Department's in-house magazine, State, records the sheer inanity that is a staple of Foreign Service thinking. Each issue highlights a "post of the month" in which diplomats describe their home away from home. The essays would make local tourism boards proud, but they also provide a mirror into the alternate universe inhabited by all too many U.S. diplomats."

The thing is - if the State Magazine is all you read, and you like the glossy pictures of nice places , then you might think that sure, these diplomats are living in a dream. And do we really want to bridge that overseas pay gap when they already live in those dream houses, and in those dream places, and have Mr/Ms McDreamy lives?

Perhaps this rag is a useful tool for prospective bidders, but you can google just about anything these days (except perhaps the promotion potential). So to think that all this gloss would help folks make up their minds whether they want to work in Timbuktu or wherever, is kind of missing the whole point. And it's a missed opportunity - of letting our folks tell their stories of what's it really like to live in those places - the challenges of doing one's work in cities with underdeveloped infrastructures, in places where physical security limits movement, where health consideration makes daily living a challenge especially for families with small children, including what's it like to have "careers" as accompanying spouses and partners in this day and age, and etc.etc. It doesn't mean we can't have fun in those miserable places - it just means it can't all be "happy-talk."


I supposed folks do not want to be perceived as doing "whine and cheese." But telling the real story of living overseas is not whiny. We tell those stories to family and friends all the time, and to a certain degree in our travel warnings and those country guides. We just have not been successful in putting a face with those realities for public consumption.

Below is a quick list of posts featured in State Mag's Post of the Month for 2008:

January: Cotonou: Friendly Beauty
Authored by six members of the mission including the Ambassador. Here is its lead paragraph: "The small but productive U.S. Mission offers its staff great responsibility, particularly entry-level officers and Foreign Service specialists, and has promotion opportunities. Reflecting this, five members of the embassy team (four officers and the Ambassador’s office management specialist) were promoted in 2007."

February: Recife: Small Consulate Covers Brazil’s Booming Northeast

March: Yaounde (Cameroon)
Diversity Creates Africa in Miniature

April: Bratislava
Creative Energy in New Europe

May: Asuncion, South America’s Mother of Cities.
Air travel is difficult in and out of the country, with no direct flights to the United States, and mail deliveries and shipments are infrequent. Scarcity of job opportunities and the language barrier limit employment opportunities for spouses.

June: Seoul: Glittering Jewel of the Korean Peninsula

July/August: Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Links Forged in War Strengthen in Peacetime

September: Jeddah
The city took center stage in the global energy crisis when 72 oil-producing and oilconsuming nations, including the United States, sent highlevel delegations to Jeddah to attend the Kingdom’s emergency oil summit in June.

October: Amsterdam, Beyond Canals and Tulips


November: Belfast, U.S. helps forge peace in Northern Ireland
"The city was known for its shipbuilding prowess and eventually gained notoriety as the birthplace of the Titanic. “It was fine when it left here,” locals point out. Enhancing economic ties remains a core mission of the consulate. In 1995, President Bill Clinton made a historic visit to Northern Ireland, the first by a sitting president. He was greeted by tens of thousands of people lining the streets and waving American flags."

1995! That's 13 years ago and we're still talking about Bill Clinton? They're not all "happy talk" admittedly but some are more, how should I say it - more real than others.


Perhaps it is time for a Real Post of the Month? Any of the FS bloggers interested to do this as a round-robbin task for the next year? Maybe I should start with one post this month but let me know if you’re interested in doing a Real Post or two. There's a host of hot spots that need the reality squad: Mumbai, Peshawar, Karachi, Bangkok, Bogota, to start with. Anyone out there interested in writing the lead article for a specific post, send me an email.

Related Post:
Wanted: Post Crisis of the Month Page

Related Items:

• Living in a Dream World:
  The Political Fantasies of Foreign Service Officers
• Guidelines for Submission to State Magazine

Wanted: Post Crisis of the Month Page

The May issue of State Magazine contains an account of a two-day siege in February that Chad (N’Djamena) endured as rebels battled government forces in an attempt to topple President Idriss Deby Itno. In February 2, U.S. Embassy family members and non-essential personnel were evacuated by the military but the ambassador and essential embassy staff remained. Below is an excerpt from Lucy Tamlyn's piece "Heat of Battle." You can read the entire piece here.

"An estimated 1,000 bullets rained on the compound every hour. An RPG exploded in a nearby tree, sending the Americans reeling and loosening the house’s corrugated tin roof. Soon, the first wave of rebels surged around the embassy compound. In addition to Ambassador Louis Nigro and 19 embassy employees, the chancery sheltered 20 local guards, a private American citizen and a Chadian-American child and his Chadian mother. As the battle advanced and retreated, looters swarmed behind the rebels. Embassy guards looked on helplessly as looters seized their treasured bicycles and motorcycles from the parking lot. The destruction of classified material picked up speed with embassy staff from all sections wielding sledgehammers and doing shredder duty. Elsewhere in the city, as security permitted, French forces ferried private American citizens and other expatriates from hotels and residences to the French base for onward passage to Libreville, Gabon.

A day later, the battle around the embassy became more fierce. An RPG round went through a second-story wall near the ambassador’s office, where an employee had been minutes before. The order came to abandon the embassy. At 3:15 p.m., Marine Detachment Commander Robert Sutton and Sgt. Patrick Shaw lowered the American flag, folded it and gave it and the embassy keys to the Ambassador. The last e-mail was sent to American citizens, urging them to seek shelter at the French base. A French helicopter landed on an improvised landing area behind the embassy to pick up the ambassador and his group during a lull in the fighting. They were joined at the French base by the Americans from the housing compound, who had endured another excruciating day in the crossfire before being picked up by French forces in armored personnel carriers. Government forces were slowly beating back the rebels. But the streets were filled with corpses. The stench of charred and burning vehicles filled the air.

The U.S. Embassy in N’Djamena never closed, however. The ambassador and key staff maintained a U.S. presence at the French base for the next two weeks, one of many French services that were greatly appreciated. On February 14, the chancery reopened and the flag was raised. The damage toll included six embassy houses that had been completely looted. Fortunately, there were no fatalities among the Chadian employees, but many experienced terror, lost household goods and were separated from their families. Employees can help them by contributing to the FSN Emergency Relief Fund."

If you are with State, please consider making a contribution to the FSN Emergency Relief Fund (check with your HRO or Management Office on how to do this). Our local employees help us overseas in so many ways, and are often caught in the middle because of their employment with the USG.

I'm relieved that no embassy employees were injured during this crisis but vivid accounts like this also help bring to the "front page" the fact that hardship assignments exist outside of Iraq. I mean, of course, the people in the FS knew this but the general public is not really aware of what is life out there in the trenches for the Foreign Service people. Seventy percent of our embassy assignments worldwide are indeed considered "hardships." And yes, they were shooting bullets at our people and this was not Iraq. Here, our remaining embassy personnel were rescued by an allied military force but I hate to imagine what would happen if there was no one to call. This also made me start wondering -- in an "expeditionary" American Presence Post in the middle of nowhere, is State prepared to send a trained team to "extract" our man or woman on the ground?

I started writing this piece with the working title "Heat of Battle: Not in Baghdad," but I realized that what we really need is for State Magazine to tell the hard stories of the Foreign Service. In fact, I think State Magazine should do away (like bury for good) with its monthly "Post of the Month" page and replaced it with something called "Post Crisis of the Month," or something similar. There is nothing included in the "Post of the Month" entry that one can't possibly find in the official post reports, the Intranet or the web.

The "Post of the Month" has tarried beyond its welcome, to put it nicely. To continue to give it such prominence in this day and age is incongruent with the realities of our times. Consider the following facts: 1) unaccompanied posts have more than quadrupled in recent years, 2) it's only April and we already have xx number of posts evacuated. If you think something as harmless as the "Post of the Month" is trivial, you can think again after reading this piece from the Weekly Standard, whose author accused FS people of Living in a Dream World. I'm not advocating this change to make the writer happy and have him become the FS's BFF, mind you, but I do think that the change is necessary to reflect the current realities within the Service and in the world where we are living. If State starts soliciting contribution to the "Post Crisis of the Month" page, I can't imagine it running out of material anytime soon.

Please send this post to the Director General through DG Direct (internal channel) or write to statemagazine[at]state[dot]gov and make a personal plea that the "Post Crisis of the Month" page be added to the magazine. Or should I perhaps start an online petition?