Duke University travel restrictions to Haiti have been loosened by the International Travel Oversight Committee (ITOC), a joint faculty-administrative body that governs the university’s International Travel Policy and maintains a Restricted Regions List (RRL).
The decision was guided by information from state and foreign affairs departments in the United States, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia as well as International SOS -- the world's largest medical and security assistance company. The committee agreed in light of recent improvements to the state of the infrastructure in Haiti, the country's presence on the list should be modified from a 'full country restriction' to 'Port-au-Prince approved for transit only.'
While students may use Port-au-Prince only to travel through for destinations outside the capital city, the remainder of the country is now considered open for travel. Students interested in traveling to Haiti for University-affiliated purposes will no longer be required to petition unless traveling to Port-au-Prince as a destination.
The RRL consists of approximately 70 countries/regions and can be found on the University's Travel Policy website. Undergraduate travel to these areas is prohibited, unless a petition for a waiver of the university's restriction is granted by the ITOC.
Graduate and Professional students wishing to travel to an area on the RRL must register and remit a signed acknowledgement of risk waiving Duke of liability should an injury, illness or death occur at the destination which Duke deemed to be high risk.
Other changes to the RRL included modifying the full country restriction on travel to the Chad to allow travel to N'Djamena. Similarly the full country restriction to the Democratic Republic of Congo was lifted. Only the border areas where conflict continues are now restricted. To see the complete list of restrictions, please visit http://www.global.duke.edu/admin/travelpolicy/rrl.php
Before going abroad, all travelers are encouraged to familiarize themselves with their destination and to register their plans in the Duke Travel Registry. Duke’s custom electronic registration database, managed by the senior manager of Global Administrative Policies and Procedures, is a comprehensive ledger of travelers used by the University, the Office of Corporate Risk Management as well as the director of Export Controls in cases of a global emergency.