Student Guide: Health, Safety, and Financial Issues Abroad

Adapted from "The StudyAbroad.com Handbook" by William Hoffa

OBEYING LOCAL AND NATIONAL LAWS

While you are visiting another country you are subject to the laws of that country. Legal protection taken for granted in the United States is left behind when you leave the U.S. American Embassies and Consulates are very limited in the assistance they can provide: the names of competent attorneys and doctors, but not any financial assistance in paying for legal or medical services. Nor can they intervene on your behalf in the administration of justice as seen from the point of view of the host country.

Bail provisions as we know them in the United States are rare in many other countries and pretrial detention without bail is not uncommon. Prison conditions in developing or fundamentalist countries may often be deplorable, in comparison to conditions in the United States. The principle of "innocent until proven guilty" is not necessarily a tenet of legal systems abroad. The best advice is of course to know the laws and obey them scrupulously. If you get in trouble, seek local legal assistance as quickly as possible.

DRUGS: Avoid any possible involvement with drugs. Drug laws of course vary from country to country, but in many cases they are extremely severe, regardless of whether the drug in your possession is for personal use or for sale to others. Bail is not granted for drug-trafficking cases in most countries. Pre-trial detention, often in solitary confinement, can last for months. Many countries do not provide a jury trial, and in many cases you need not even be present at your trial.

Most prison and law enforcement officials abroad will probably not speak English, the significance of which you may not fully appreciate until you are confined and feeling helpless, in very hard conditions. The average jail sentence in drug cases worldwide is about seven years. In at least four countries (Iran, Algeria, Malaysia, and Turkey) the death penalty can be imposed for conviction on some drug charges. Do not wrongly assume that buying or carrying small amounts of drugs cannot result in their arrest. In reality, Americans have been jailed abroad for possessing as little as three grams (about one-tenth of an ounce) of marijuana.

Adapted from "The StudyAbroad.com Handbook" by William Hoffa