Mining kidnappings

People and Appointments

A special report by Jonathan Craymer in this week's Mining Journal identifies India as one of world's kidnapping hotspots.

Once hailed as the jewel in the crown of technology-driven Asian economies, India is rapidly gaining a more sinister reputation – as one of the world's kidnapping hotspots.

India is now ranked fifth in a global kidnap risk league table compiled by international insurance broker Willis.

Greg Bangs, worldwide product manager of kidnap and ransom at the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, believes that as the global economy has gone down, occurrences of kidnapping as a means of extorting money have gone up. He says hitherto comparatively safe areas like India are becoming danger zones for company executives and those who appear wealthy.

"India has been hit very hard," Mr Bangs told Mining Journal. "The Indian middle-class miracle flowered for a while, but the bloom is definitely off the rose, and a lot of people there are under severe economic pressure. As far as local kidnappings in India are concerned, figures are now well into the thousands each year."

But India is not alone. A special report by Mining Journal shows how this type of crime is on the increase, and while kidnappings by Somali pirates or Iraqi insurgents may grab the world headlines, kidnap and ransom (K&R) gangs behind the scenes are quietly netting (according to Willis' subsidiary SCR) an annual US$500 million. Not surprisingly, some 75% of Fortune 500 companies now carry kidnap insurance.

Latin America still leads the K&R field. One estimate puts the total number of kidnappings in Mexico last year at 7,000 and Venezuela is catching up fast. Security adviser Control Risks says Latin America last year was responsible for no less than 37% of all kidnapping incidents.

Helped by India's ascendancy in K&R, the Asia and the Pacific region is now responsible for one-third of all extortion-based kidnapping, according to Control Risks. The company says that the Africa and Middle East region is also seeing a rise – accounting for 24% of the total last year.

The Mining Journal report also explodes the myth that expatriates face the highest risk of kidnap. Experience shows the reverse; professional K&R gangs prefer to kidnap local managers.

Another myth debunked is that security professionals mount dramatic rescues. Russell Crowe may have gone storming into a Colombian rebel camp in the film 'Proof of Life' but Wes Odom, executive VP of operations at Ackerman Group LLC, told Mining Journal: "In our view the quickest way to get a hostage killed is to mount a rescue operation."

The investigation also shows that post traumatic stress can show up a long time afterwards,
and Willis allows claims up to three years after the original incident.