Safe Luxury

How safe is it to work as a foreign national in Trinidad (Port of Spain)?

Im thinking of a stint abroad for a couple of years. I am English, 35 and Caucasian, Ive been onto the home office web site and Trinidad seems pretty dangerous. Is this true? Thanks

Public Comments

1. Yes as with everywhere else we do have some crime - If you put yourself out there as a target them crime will come your way - Just take precautions and follow guidelines set by your embassy and you may just not be on our statistics! By the way the US or UK has more violence than us - Chow!
2. Yep she's right, just practise caution & common sense wherever you go. There's gonna be crime wherever you go & there's more crime in the UK & US than in sweet Trinidad, but since Trini is so small, you'll always hear about the crime there. Don't draw attention to yourself & you'll be good to go..
3. well as said before execrcise caution dont go anywhere where it have a little or no persons on the street...even in day light! places like george street and back ..ie further away from frederick street do not go by yourself...actually you have no reason to be there so don go there! and come nah and enjoy yourself..anymore questions feel free to ask! oh and the crime thing...if you were trioni and u really examine it it really is not as bad they report ...as was said before only because we smaller!
4. Well our crime rate is not where we'd like it to be and as a foreign you are more susceptible to a certain type of violence than nationals, but then the same argument can be made for women and basically any group of people. And current trends seem to belie the poor rating from your home office...right now a lot of oil/petroleum companies are hiring more expats than they used to (because Lenny Saith could care less about enforcing the rule that they only hire foreigners to do work locals can't etc)...so parts of Trinidad, and Tobago are literally crawling with foreigners... And there are segments of the population that caters, almost specifically to this growing expat segment of the population...so I don't think you should have any problem if you do decide to come here to work...just exercise typical caution...I do believe sometimes foreigners are just too careless when they travel to third world countries...particularly the Caribbean...I can't tell you how many times I've seen foreigners do absolute nonsense...or read stories in the papers about crimes to "innocent" foreigners who literally courted danger by be stupid and careless. But Trinidad and Tobago is a wonderful country and you can benefit from working here, and hopefully we benefit from your talent while you're stationed here.
5. Sorry to say it but most of the crime in our country is drug related. As long as you not coming here to set up a big drug cartel you should be safe enough. The people in my country are very friendly and welcoming to visitors so you should have no problem in getting along with us. Trinidad and Tobago is a beautiful paradise to live in. The culture is deep rooted, the history is rich and the food is delicious. People who visit here always keep coming back for more. I'm sure you will love it.
6. i think that those answers have it covered. if you choose to come to trinidad, just be careful - dont go places where you may see questionable characters, ask questions about the area before venturing out to explore POS, and think about what you are doing! no excessive jewellery or 'flashing of foreign currency' etc. I really hope you decide to come here - the thing is..you may never want to leave!
7. DON"T GO..THEY"LL KIDNAP YOU AND THEN HOLD YOU FOR RANSOME AND THEN KILL YOU.. STAY IN ENGLAND..
8. yes just like anywhere else there is crime in trinidad and tobago. one cannot live in fear. there are many expats here on the islands and have been for years and they have been careful. just don't make yourself an easy target and be extra careful.
9. I used to be an ex-pat living in port of spain in Maraval (which is a very nice area if u r looking for housing). The crime used to be very high with weekly kidnappings however that was 7 years ago and now the crime is a lot more sedate with mainly drug related incidents so if u stay out of drugs and dont expose yourself you will be fine!
10. RUN AWAY 0_0 as fast as you can boye!!!