Leigh - that is one approach. Although some would argue that it's a hard bitten one :-) The main difficulty is being able to locate the kidnappers in a reasonably efficient way (time-wise). Hence, it would very helpful if these NGO's would give their volunteers personal alarms that could be activated in an emergency, and would use GPS tracking to give their position.

In reality, it plays out in a different way. Let me give you one recent example. Two medical aid workers were abducted from a remote camp. They worked for a major NGO. They were kidnapped by a hostile group who used elaborate methods to conceal their location. The precautions taken to provide security for the NGO workers were poor - so it was very easy for the kidnappers to walk in and take someone. The NGO put out press releases complaining about the attack on their staff (though naturally no word about the lack of safety precautions). After that, the NGO went silent. The two hostages were in captivity for about 9 months and lost so much weight they looked like refugees when recovered. It is unknown if they were physically or sexually abused during captivity. They were freed because a large sum of money was paid (roughly $1 million apiece). The NGO made a press statement saying that they had paid no ransom. This was splitting hairs - since most likely they secured the help of independent private donors to give the money for the ransom. The two volunteers were eventually released.

It is particularly frustrating that the people paying these ransoms are offering such high prices. There is no "set rate" for the price of a human being - except what the market will bear. Unfortunately, for aid workers it's around $1 million per head, give or take (and that is after a lot of negotiations).

This is the way that things currently take place ... generally speaking. But it doesn't work for victims who work for small NGO's, or journalists from small media companies (or third world countries) ... they cannot pay. So their captivity can be long, gruesome, and may not end in freedom.

Pete