1. The document discusses the risks of kidnapping for employees working in global hotspots, where incidents of kidnapping and violence are common. It provides details of one Canadian man, Robert Croke, who was kidnapped along with others from an oil rig off the coast of Nigeria. 2. Companies operating in high-risk locations need to have realistic crisis management and kidnapping response plans in place. They should also educate employees on security practices and acquire kidnap and ransom insurance. 3. While negotiating ransom is often necessary to secure releases, response experts emphasize the need for discretion and treating each case as a financial transaction to minimize encouraging further kidnappings.

1. 26 Canadlan lnsurance | risk manager summer 2011 www.citopbroker.com www.citopbroker.com summer 2011 Canadlan lnsurance | risk manager 27
>> by Brynna Leslie
Forget about Hollywood
myths when it comes to
protecting employees in
global hotspots where
kidnappings and political
violence are common
emergency procedure dictated half
the crew would be mustering. But an
unlocked freezer door led the militants
into the safety area through the galley
kitchen where approximately 30 men
were lying on the floor. The gunmen
demanded to see the captain. When no
one stepped forward, the leader shot a
single bullet into the floor. It ricocheted
and hit Croke, shattering his foot.
After failed attempts to bribe the
militants with thousands of dollars
in cash and computer equipment,
another man was shot in the leg. Then
“they gathered all the white people,”
including Croke, two Americans, and
two French nationals, and loaded them
into four boats. Croke lost his shoes in
the dark ocean water. The militants
hijacked a supply vessel near the rig
guarded by Indonesian soldiers and
took two more hostages. For the next
nine days, Croke was led, bloodied and
barefoot, by boat along through the
narrow rivers of the scorching Nigerian
jungle, sleeping in tents, sustained
with instant noodles and, some days,
water. Only when the Nigerian Navy
began bombing overhead did the mili-
tants agree to negotiate the release of
the hostages in return for amnesty.
The Business of Kidnapping
While it may sound like a Hollywood
movie, incidents like this occur every
day. Although worldwide kidnapping
statistics are generally underreported
and unreliable, ASI Global, a U.S.-
based kidnap response firm, unofficially
estimates that abductions in hot zones
worldwide—including Latin America,
Africa and the Middle East—are
increasing both in frequency and scope.
Numbers are so varied that estimates
from myriad sources suggest there are
anywhere from thousands to tens of
thousands of abductions each year.
“Many victims’ families opt to resolve
cases without involving the authorities,”
says Mason Wilder, an intelligence
analyst at ASI Global. “There are typi-
cally large discrepancies between offi-
cial statistics and unofficial estimates,
and there are blurry definitions of what
constitutes kidnapping.”
The company has compiled an
unofficial list of the countries where
kidnapping for ransom occurs most
often, including Mexico, Venezuela,
Colombia, Honduras, Nigeria,
Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Russia,
and Philippines. Statistics Canada data
show that approximately 1.8 million
Canadians travelled to these hot zones
in 2009. Many of these countries share
the reputation of being politically
unstable, resource-rich nations, which
often reluctantly become host to large
international firms.
“In Nigeria, for example, most
kidnappings occur in the Niger Delta
region due to the rebel activity and
high concentration of foreign compa-
nies there,” explains Wilder. “Poverty,
unemployment and poor police capa-
bilities are the primary driving forces
behind the growing kidnapping rate.”
The majority of victims are local pol-
iticians, oil workers and their families.
Many of them, like Croke, are expatri-
ates in the oil and gas industry or con-
struction sector. Extended muggings
have also become common, where a
foreign business person is detained long
enough to travel from ATM to ATM
and deplete cash finances. And while
Croke was fortunate to be released in a
timely fashion, many hostages are held
for months, and forced to pay exor-
bitant ransom fees; some are injured
or even killed during the abduction
process or rescue attempts.
“There’s been a trend away from a
few high-dollar targets to more of a
volume business model among kidnap-
pers,” explains Dan Johnson, chief of
operations at ASI Global. “There’s a
view that the upper and middle class
What Every
Risk Manager
Should Know
1 An up-to-date and realistic
crisis management plan is
essential for every company,
every employee, in every
location. “If your kidnap
response plan includes military
intervention from the FBI or
the Canadian embassy,” says
Johnson, “you may want to
revisit it.”
2 All Canadian travellers should
register with the Canadian
Diplomatic and Consular
Services. In the event of an
emergency, things can get done
more quickly if the government
is aware an individual is out of
the country.
3 Prepare the traveller before they
travel. “That includes educating
them on the culture, telling them
what the crime rates are, which
areas are safe or not, and what
to do if something goes wrong,”
says Johnson.
4 Kidnap and Ransom insurance
is available. However, most
products are reimbursement-
based and the upfront costs of
resolving a kidnap situation can
be quite high. For companies
operating in hot zones, this
product is essential. But keep
it close to your chest. Individual
employees and their families
need not know the details of
the coverage.
In
Harm’s
Way
S
hortly after midnight on November 8, 2010, PPI
Technology Services employee Robert Croke was get-
ting ready for bed on an Afren PLC oil rig, 11 kilome-
tres off the coast of Nigeria. Against safety protocol,
Croke was in a trailer adjacent to the helicopter deck, far from
the confined centre of the rig where 70 others were bedding
down for the night, and a handful still working. He heard a
garbled announcement over the loudspeaker, followed by the
single ring of a bell. Croke walked up five stairs to investigate,
and found himself looking down the barrel of a gun.
“My mouth went dry as if I’d eaten a full bottle of Tums, I
just had no saliva,” Croke recalled in a telephone interview from
his home in Torbay, Newfoundland.
Eight Nigerian militants forced him at gunpoint to tour the rig.
Expecting the rest of the crew to be in lockdown, Croke obeyed.
They reached the watertight, bolted doors to the galley, where
GettyImages

2. 28 Canadlan lnsurance | risk manager summer 2011 www.citopbroker.com www.citopbroker.com summer 2011 Canadlan lnsurance | risk manager 29
can’t afford security and other mea-
sures, offering kidnappers the path of
least resistance.”
K&R Myths and Realities
Former British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher famously declared
that negotiating with terrorists
would only serve to fuel terrorism.
Firms like ASI Global, and its com-
petitor, UK-based Terra Firma Risk
Management, (which declined to
comment for this article), have their
fair share of critics. They, along with
their partner insurance companies
who provide kidnap and ransom
(K&R) coverage, are seen by pundits
as perpetuating the worldwide kidnap
for ransom business.
The increase in global response
firms and K&R products has paralleled
the upward trend in abductions, but
Johnson believes it’s a chicken-and-egg
argument. Kidnapping may simply be
an offshoot of the overall increase in
international business transactions, he
says. As for ransom negotiations, “how
else are you going to get them out?”
he asks rhetorically.
“There’s not a lot of support that
comes out of diplomatic channels and
if you think the Canadian government
is going to send in 10 highly trained
ninjas to get you out, you are mis-
taken,” says Johnson. “And contrary to
Hollywood depictions, such as in the
2000 movie Proof of Life, there are no
Russell Crowe-type, ex-military cowboys
who make stealth entries into mountain
camps, kick down doors, shoot down
militants and pull your man out.
“Russell Crowe and I are both
incredibly good-looking and that’s
where the reality of that movie
ended,” jokes Johnson. “We believe
that kidnap for ransom is entirely a
financial negotiation and that we can
bring about a resolution financially
by coming to an agreed price with
the kidnappers. We are guided with
one principle and that is the safe and
timely release of the victim.”
In the event of kidnap for ransom,
family members are best-placed to
conduct direct negotiations with the
kidnappers based on an established
set of protocols. Often, says Johnson,
both the abducted and the kidnappers
remain unaware of third-party inter-
vention, including if and when there is
an insurance policy in place.
“If you are abducted, there is a
natural tendency to feel that you have
to self-negotiate,” explains Johnson.
“You show value so you won’t be
killed or won’t be abused. The prob-
lem is, if you say you’ve got a million
Who’s Responsible?
The special case of overseas freelance employees
In February, 20-year-old journalist Jonathan Pednault was in Egypt,
unofficially working on a story for L’actualité, a Quebec news magazine,
when he was assaulted and then detained by Egyptian officials. When
editor Carole Beaulieu heard of his arrest, she immediately began the
process of getting him out.
Technically, Beaulieu was not responsible for Pednault’s release.
“The rules say that independent journalists are independent journalists,”
says Beaulieu. “They are expected to be responsible for their own security
and insure themselves. But in reality, we had a duty to take care of him.
It was a moral duty, and I expect that as an organization we would not be
able to resist the international pressure to avoid this duty.”
The team were fortunate that Pednault had been travelling with two
others, one a television cameraman from New Zealand who was able to
contact his embassy to negotiate their release. Although the ordeal was
over in less than 24 hours, Beaulieu learned more about crisis management
planning in that short time than she had in two decades as a journalist.
When hiring freelancers, Beaulieu now insists on having minimal emer-
gency contact information, including a copy of the passport and the name
of immediate family. She also encourages independent journalists to travel
in groups, and to maintain regular contact with the news room.
dollars in a retirement account and
a three-million-dollar home, it raises
the expectations of the kidnappers.
So there’s a lot of secrecy around the
K&R policy, who has the policy and
who doesn’t. Often the people that
have this type of insurance don’t even
know they have it.”
ASI Global is the responder for
clients of Travelers Insurance, while
Ironshore Canada is in the final stages
of putting together a program around
K&R in partnership with Terra Firma
Risk Management. Both insurers were
shy about discussing the details around
these products with the media.
“This is incredibly tightly controlled
information,” says Johnson. “Even we
don’t know who among our clients has
insurance with Travelers.”
Managing Hot-Zone Risk
While there are no data on the num-
ber of Canadians working abroad,
Statistics Canada data show Canadians
made 53 million cross-border visits in
2009. Because many Canadians fail to
register with consular services when
outside of the country, this may repre-
sent only a portion of the actual trips.
“Corporations need to be focusing
on providing proper ‘duty of care’ for
their employees when living and travel-
ling outside of their country’s borders,”
says Mark Hall, vice-president of
business development for medical,
safety and security solutions company
FrontierMEDEX Group, the parent
company of ASI Global which spe-
cializes in emergency medical and
political evacuations. “That includes
medical assistance and evacuation
support, and also security, providing
proper intelligence, monitoring and
support to keep them safe while living
and travelling overseas.”
Both ASI Global and
FrontierMEDEX Group provide
customized training, focused on reduc-
ing risks and preparing individuals to
respond to fluid conditions generated
by unforeseen circumstances, and
be more security-savvy. The primary
training goals entail the protection
of human lives, corporate image and
reputation, proprietary information
and operational assets.
“Every country has its own laws that
you must obey and unique customs to
be aware of,” explains Hall. “It’s really
important to be informed about the
simple things like how to meet and
greet, how to blend in and how not
to offend the host culture. People are
looking for cultural faux pas as oppor-
tunities, and this is something that can
get you into trouble pretty quickly.”
But companies also need to have
a crisis management plan in place,
which includes who is responsible
for overseeing response, and who to
contact in case of emergency. Without
established protocols, an emergency
situation has a tendency to be mis-
handled, or ignored until it reaches a
devastating climax.
“In almost every case, there are
series of events that we’re monitoring
through our intelligence division that
we can proactively anticipate before
events unfold,” says Hall. “A majority
of our clients hire our company to
basically tell them when to worry, so
that they can focus on their day-to-
day responsibilities.”
In Canada, World Travel Protection
Canada Inc. (WTP) offers a travel
tracking and monitoring program on
a mobile smart device (BlackBerry),
keeping clients up-to-date on politi-
cal and medical risk in various coun-
tries, and the relative location of their
employees. As the service arm for
Zurich Insurance and many white-label
clients that use WTP emergency medi-
cal, travel security and travel assistance
services around the world, WTP is one
of the largest of its kind in Canada.
“Most corporations have a very good
understanding of their fixed assets
abroad—their property, their equip-
ment and services—and they do take
precautions,” says Abasse Asgaraly,
director of new business develop-
ment for WTP. “But when it comes to
mobile assets—travellers and expatri-
ates—they usually have a very substan-
dard understanding of the risks.”
It is essential, says Asgaraly, to have a
firm like WTP providing intelligence
and advice on potential hot zones,
and to have established emergency
protocols on what to do in the event
of a political or medical evacuation.
For large-scale evacuations, much of
the advance work is about locating
hospitals in the vicinity, how good the
roads are, and if there is a possibility of
bringing in aircraft.
“We are there to help clients for-
mulate a contingency plan to evacu-
ate people in case of political risk,”
says Asgaraly. “When it comes to very
specific operations like mining or
energy companies, in our business,
we cannot improvise. If we improvise,
we lose too much time.” RM
“ There’s not a lot of support from diplomatic
channels and if you think the Canadian
government is going to send in 10 highly trained
ninjas to get you out, you are mistaken.
”