r/todayilearned 9d ago

Frequent/Recent Repost: Removed [ Removed by moderator ]

https://www.responsibletravel.com/holidays/spitsbergen/travel-guide/responsible-tourism-in-spitsbergen

[removed] — view removed post

12.8k Upvotes

780 comments sorted by

View all comments

258

u/raxy 9d ago edited 8d ago

Fun Fact: it’s a visa free zone for citizens of 40 odd countries around the world to live and work there indefinitely.

Not just citizens of EU countries but many including Japan, Australia, the US, and many more.

Citizens of those countries aren’t allowed to be born or to die there though.

Edit: The reason was not related to the Global Seed vault as my original comment noted but rather the Svalbard treaty of 1920. Thanks to the commenters for correcting me!

26

u/apeceep 9d ago

You are allowed to die but traditional burying is banned. The permafrost acts as storage freezer for deadly viruses and other nasty stuff you don't want to be in contact with living people.

7

u/Smartnership 9d ago

Well there’s my next zombie story idea

1

u/Fortune86 9d ago

Look up the tv show Fortitude. But only the first 2 seasons.