The release of two Britons over one year after they were kidnapped by Somali pirates and the recent attempted armed robbery/kidnap in Brazil of F1 champion Jenson Button have served to highlight the increasing risk of kidnap for ransom.

Industry reports put K&R statistics at anywhere between 20,000-30,000 a year. And whilst many of these are between competing criminal gangs or short term hostage situations involving couples, criminal and terrorist elements see the kidnap for ransom of corporate travellers as an extremely lucrative trade.

Simon Atkinson, director of operations for risk and security adviser, Pasco Risk, says: “Insurers and their clients might spend time teaching executives going to high risk countries what to do when they are kidnapped. But rarely do they give the same attention to telling executives what can be done to avoid being kidnapped in the first place. There are a number of very simple but effective things that executives can do to protect themselves but if they have not been shown how to recognise and avoid risk situations and behaviours they will become an easy target – even in city centre locations…”

Speaking about the Jenson Button incident, Atkinson says, “Jenson Button was lucky to have had an experienced police driver who could get him out of a dangerous situation very rapidly – most executives will not be so fortunate so they need to reduce risk as much as they can. For example, wearing highly visible branded clothing, like McLaren’s eye-catching silver and orange team shirts, is an obvious magnet for unwanted attention. For business executives in high risk countries carrying branded laptop bags and wearing clothing with company logos is the corporate equivalent of Jenson’s shirt.”

Atkinson urges insurance companies and their corporate clients to do more than simply train executives about how to behave once in the hands of their kidnappers. An intensive programme of coaching on risk avoidance for executives being sent to high risk locations could significantly reduce the costs for both the company and the insurer. He recommends that training of executives should include personal security measures, anti-kidnap awareness, and information about the kidnap threat level in the countries and cities the executive will be visiting. Learning how to prevent kidnappers from gathering information about them and denying surveillance opportunities will reduce the kidnap threat exposure.

Atkinson adds, “There are obvious risk markets like Iraq and Pakistan, but other more westernised economies such as Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil and the Philippines are often even more dangerous for the unaware executive – the Philippines for example is now seen as the kidnap centre of Asia. Having been established in South Africa, Pasco are very aware of the risks in under developed parts of Africa, but increasingly the real risk to corporate executives is in those regions where drug cartels and organised crime see kidnapping as an easy option for topping up their operating funds. Even in the US organised crime now sees kidnap as easy money.”

Atkinson points out that there are additional costs to any organisation of kidnap - in terms of salary commitments, familial welfare, shareholder and employee confidence and re-integration of repatriated hostages into the workplace – that may run into hundreds of thousands of pounds. It therefore makes sound commercial sense for companies – in line with their standard Duty of Care obligations - to conduct a level of suitable pre-deployment training for those personnel who may be at risk.

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