GSX Daily 2022 Recap – Large-Scale Evacuations: Lessons Learned from Afghanistan and Ukraine

By Sara Mosqueda

Even when an organization or government knows well in advance that it may have to fly or drive employees or citizens to a safer location, a large-scale evacuation can present pitfalls.

During the GSX 2022 education session “Large-Scale Evacuations: Tactics, Techniques & Protocols,” experts from International SOS discussed trends based on recent evacuations that organizations may want to plan for in advance.

The Basics

Evacuation procedures can be broken down into five stages:

  1. Preparation
  2. Warning
  3. Stand-by
  4. Evacuation of non-essential personnel
  5. Full evacuation

Jeremy Prout, CPP, security director of security solutions for International SOS, noted that administering the actual evacuation could often be the trickiest part. For organizations with facilities or personnel in foreign nations, having a policy and detailed plan, complete with redundancies and back-ups, is essential.

This also applies to organizations with a smaller footprint or staff in a region, added Julian Moro, senior vice president and regional security director for International SOS.

You can read the rest of this article from Security Management here.

For more Security Management content about mass evacuations as well as the situations in Turkey and Ukraine, check out the articles and podcast below: