The UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) revalidated its Brazil country advice page on 21 September, retaining a “high-risk” caution for parts of Amazonas and renewing guidance on urban safety. The latest change—dated 9 September but reflected in the 21 September ‘still current at’ stamp—adds detail on unlicensed taxi scams after a spate of tourist robberies in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. While no new COVID-19-era health measures were introduced, the FCDO reiterated that travelling against its advice can void UK travel-insurance policies, a clause that also applies to expatriate assignments arranged through British entities. Employers with UK-based assignees in Brazil must therefore document risk-mitigation steps—such as vetted car-service providers—to remain compliant with duty-of-care rules and insurance covenants. The advisory continues to discourage river travel west of Codajás and along the Itaquaí and Japurá tributaries due to organised-crime activity. Companies operating in the legal-mining or environmental-consulting sectors near those waterways should review journey-management plans and consider chartering aircraft rather than boats where feasible. Because FCDO updates feed into many global security-intelligence dashboards, the 21 September refresh may trigger automatic travel-approval workflows in multinational HR systems. Mobility managers should cross-check that alerts are not duplicated and confirm whether employees truly transit the newly emphasised risk zones.
Source: UK Government (GOV.UK)
