Daniel Houston, senior commercial account executive with the McCart Group.

Kidnapping of international travelers for ransom is expanding to include a wider range of targets than rich and high profile people, according to Daniel Houston, a senior commerical account executive and expert in personal risk management at the McCart Group in Atlanta.

“It used to be that they targeted the wealthy, always foreigners, then they went after businesspeople, now almost anybody can be targeted,” Mr. Houston told GlobalAtlanta following a seminar at the Georgian Club Oct. 9.  “We’ve had cases where tourists were taken and their towns had bake sales and car washes to pay the ransom.” 

Mr. Houston first became involved in personal risk management during his work for NCR Corp., a company that manages business transactions all over the world, eventually becoming its director of risk management and insurance at the company’s worldwide headquarters in Atlanta. 

He maintained his contacts from that experience and, through his work with local risk management insurance and consultant group McCart, has been involved in numerous hostage negotiations.  McCart’s services include a kidnap and ransom insurance policy that can financially protect companies and individuals doing business in dangerous countries. 

Mr. Houston added that kidnapping is growing as a form of organized crime in many countries around the world.  “Most kidnappings are not random, they’re done by gangs of people who know what they’re doing.”

According to his information, 27 percent of kidnapping victims, the largest single group, are dependants of wealthy or prominent people.  Business personnel make up 23 percent of the total and 15 percent are tourists and aid workers.  Also at risk are government officials and employees of international companies. 

Mr. Houston based his assessments on the findings of risk management firms London-based Control Risks International and Annapolis, Md.-based iJet Intelligent Risk Systems.

International travelers currently face the highest risk of kidnapping in Mexico, Colombia, Russia, Brazil, China, El Salvador, India, Malaysia, Philippines and Venezuela, in that order, according to Control Risks and iJet.

This list changes from year to year as security concerns transform in various countries.

Not all the news is bad, he added, noting the positive change in Colombia’s internal security.  A pending free trade agreement with the United States is fueling an encouraging trend in the safety of foreign travelers in Colombia.

“Colombia wants this trade agreement to go through,” he said.  “The government has put a lot of pressure on these groups,” of organized criminals, making the country more secure for international travelers.

As in Colombia, the kidnapping risk has also decreased in the United States.  As of 10 years ago, the United States was the sixth most dangerous country in the world in terms of kidnappings.  That statistic has plummeted following a heightened awareness of personal security after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Houston said, adding that kidnappings are very rare in the U.S. today.

International travelers can take measures to lessen the likelihood of being kidnapped if they are forced to enter dangerous areas.  The most important of these, according to Mr. Houston, is not to draw attention to oneself with displays of wealth.

The discreet traveler should dress casually, keep multiple copies of travel documents such as a passport, reserve hotel rooms in their own name and keep track of seemingly mundane items that carry a lot of personal information, such as business cards and electronic hotel keys.

Despite the hazards of kidnapping situations, Mr. Houston said that when victims have a kidnap and ransom insurance policy and access to a professional negotiator, 90 to 95 percent of these incidents end with the safe return of the hostage.

Gangs kidnap international travelers for a number of different reasons, including getting a ransom in the form of money, equipment or information or to publicize a cause.  Mr. Houston grouped kidnappers into four main classifications: professionals, criminals, political groups and religious groups.

Professional kidnappers work according to the same routine regardless of the motivations behind the crime and are the easiest group for negotiators to work with, Mr. Houston said.  For example, in Mexico a “grab,” or kidnapping, is often handled by one group of people; sometimes corrupt police, who then pass the hostage on to a holding group.

The holders telephone the hostage’s relatives and give proof of life in the form of the hostage’s voice or information that only the hostage would know.  If the victim’s family has a kidnap and ransom insurance policy, a professional negotiating firm will handle the ransom deal instead of law enforcement.

Mr. Houston said that kidnappings done by professionals are more likely to end with the safe recovery of the hostage.  Criminal kidnappers are concerned only with money and will most likely kill the victim after they have the ransom.

Hostages are even worse off in the hands of political and religious groups, according to Mr. Houston.  They are the most difficult for negotiators to reason with “because they operate on passion; they are the most erratic,” he said.

Mr. Houston added that it might now be necessary to consider a new category, the “kill Americans” kidnappers, whose only goal is to hurt United States citizens for ideological reasons.

These groups operate most frequently in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the U.S. is currently conducting counterinsurgency operations.  Common victims of these attacks include aid workers and journalists investigating prominent militants.

Companies that have a kidnap and ransom insurance policy can have the cost of a ransom covered, as well as coverage for personal injury, threats against employees or products and treatment for medical and psychiatric care for a kidnapping victim.  This policy also gives companies access to a professional negotiating firm, the best of whom have agents all over the world and knowledge of local gangs, according to Mr. Houston.

Companies doing business internationally that want this type of coverage can contact Mr. Houston at the McCart Group.