“These cases go from the shadows to the public glare.” The Belgium-Iran deal She added: “Going public is beneficial, not least because it puts pressure on politicians to stick their neck on the line and take some risks to get family members home.

Ms Briggs, now chief executive of research and data firm The Clarity Factory, said over the last two years families have realised that staying quiet was “letting governments off the hook”. One such example is Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of Iranian-British dual citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who campaigned tirelessly for his wife’s freedom after she was detained in Iran in 2016.īefore she was eventually released in March, Mr Ratcliffe publicly protested her imprisonment and went on two hunger strikes outside the UK Parliament to persuade the Government to increase efforts for her release. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe with her husband Richard Ratcliffe and daughter Gabriella outside 10 Downing Street (Photo: Victoria Jones/PA) Families who were previously told by authorities to keep their head down while officials dealt with the case quietly behind the scenes realised that going public would add pressure on governments to take action quicker and to take bigger risks to get their loved ones home. She said over the course of 15 years working with the charities, cases of state hostage-taking “were growing and growing” and most people would never hear about them.īut that is beginning to change. Ms Briggs was founding executive director of Hostage US and the first director of Hostage UK (now Hostage International), charities which support the families of hostages. “There’s a duty of care for countries like the US that have not put in place long term strategies to keep their people safe overseas (and) to try to end this crime.” ‘From the shadows to the public glare’ “The reality is the only way you can get people home in these cases is by trading,” said Ms Briggs. Although the details have not been confirmed officially, it is widely believed that the US offered the release of Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms dealer nicknamed the “merchant of death” who is serving a 25-year prison sentence.

The hostage bonanza