Safe travels: Don't be a kidnapper's easy target

Quite simply, a more volatile world breeds more opportunities for these incidents to occur. NGO workers are operating in increasingly insecure places and are exposed to significant risks to potential kidnappings or attacks. Every day, humanitarian aid workers, human rights activists, environmental defenders, medical professionals, teachers, independent journalists and others risk their lives to provide humanitarian assistance to communities who depend on aid for their survival.

While high profile, high net-worth individuals and organisations are favourite targets for kidnappers for large ransom demands, other criminals dabble in “express kidnapping”, preying on unlucky individuals to elicit a quick payout for their release. Whatever their scheme of choice, kidnappers look for easy targets.

This article provides some top tips for travellers and highlights the benefits of procuring kidnap, ransom and extortion coverage.