<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1664463161208,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000016b-0e59-daea-a7ff-0f5fee2e0002","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1664463161208,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000016b-0e59-daea-a7ff-0f5fee2e0002","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_63781977", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1102642"} }); rn","_id":"00000183-89bc-d948-a3b3-cdfe40c90000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedAs of this year, at least 19 countries have either wrongfully detained or continued to hold a U.S. national in captivity, a number that is nearly five times as high as it was around the start of the century, according to a new report.
The Foley Foundation, whose namesake was the late James Foley, a journalist who was killed by the Islamic State after nearly two years in captivity, released its annual report on Wednesday that provides insights into the latest statistics of hostage diplomacy, or the taking of Americans to use as political pawns.
From 2001 to 2005, only four countries were actively and wrongfully holding Americans, representing a nearly 500% increase from then to the present.
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Iran, China, Venezuela, Syria, and Russia account for roughly three-quarters of the current detentions. Iran has held at least four Americans wrongfully every year since 2007, China has held at least one U.S. national since 2002, and Venezuela and Russia have held at least one American since 2013 and 2017, respectively.
The number of Americans detained from 2012 to 2022 was an average of 11 per year, which represents a 175% increase from the average of four for the 10 years before that, 2001-2011. Since 2012, the number of Americans detained each year has ranged from seven to 17.
The duration that wrongfully detained Americans are held has also increased in recent years, as nearly half of the current hostages have been held for more than five years.
More than 60 Americans are now wrongfully detained abroad, according to the report, which was released at a time when these cases have been in the spotlight.
WNBA superstar Brittney Griner is being wrongfully detained in Russia, a designation handed down by the State Department. She was arrested and pleaded guilty to bringing a cannabis vaping cartridge into the country, though in her acknowledgment, she called it an accident. The United States has revealed it offered a “substantial proposal” for her return and that of Paul Whelan, another American whom the administration considers wrongfully detained in Russia, though there are no indications a deal for their return is imminent.
Griner’s case, which has ebbed and flowed in and out of the spotlight since she was arrested in February just days before the Russian military invaded Ukraine, has brought significantly more attention to the plight of all Americans wrongfully detained, and her detention coincided with the formation of the Bring Our Families Home Campaign, which has protested in front of the White House and outside the United Nations General Assembly in order to get a meeting with President Joe Biden, among other requests.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The U.S. negotiated the return of Mark Frerichs, who had been held by the Taliban for nearly two years, agreed to swap retired U.S. Marine Trevor Reed for convicted Russian drug trafficker Konstantin Yaroshenko, and brought home two oil executives who were being held in Venezuela, though there are a handful of others who are being held by Nicolas Maduro’s regime.
The cases of Americans wrongfully detained abroad fall under the purview of the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, though the Foley Foundation report found that the office “requires more influence within the State Department and across other regional directorates within the National Security Council,” and it argued that the administration should create a new position, the deputy assistant to the president and special coordinator for detentions.
