Iran, China, Venezuela, Syria, and Russia account for 75% of US nationals currently wrongfully detained

Washington: As the United States contest the “wrongful detention” of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in Russia, a look back at the detention of US nationals in the past decade brings to forefront the “complex, more widespread, and more frequent” situation the country faces overseas.

A recent survey by the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation revealed that the number of US nationals wrongfully detained increased by 175 per cent over the last decade, with Iran, China, Venezuela, Syria, and Russia accounting for 75 per cent of the total number of detainees.

“From 2012–2022, an average of 11 US nationals were wrongfully detained each year. This number represents a 175 per cent increase from the average number of four US nationals detained each year from 2001–2011. Since 2012, the number of US nationals detained each year has varied from 7 to 17 US nationals per year,” the report released in late 2022 states.

It states that since 2001, at least 177 US nationals were “wrongfully detained by state actors, with approximately seven US nationals detainees detained per year”. While 49 US nationals were “wrongfully detained” between 2001–2011, the number increased to 123 from 2012–2022.

The report states that there might be a possibility that this increase could be due to underreporting of state level hostagetakings from 2001–2011.

On the other hand, the number of US nationals, who continue to be “wrongfully held by foreign governments” has witnessed a drastic increase of 580 per cent over the last decade, as the the number of releases each year has not kept pace with the number of detentions, since 2012.

On an average, 34 US nationals were wrongfully held by foreign governments each year between 2012–2022, as per the report, which further mentioned, “This number represents a 580 per cent increase from the average number of five US nationals held each year from 2001–2011. Since 2012, the number of releases each year has not kept pace with the number of detentions resulting in a cumulative increase in the number of US nationals who remained wrongfully held.”

Countries with most detainees

The report by the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation states that over 60 per cent of the US nationals “wrongfully detained abroad” have been held by Iran, China, Venezuela, North Korea, Syria, or Russia — countries which have had strained or adversarial relations with the United States.

“Detentions in Iran, China, Venezuela, Syria, and Russia account for 75 per cent of US nationals currently wrongfully detained,” the 2022 report stated.

Out of all the countries, Iran has detained the most (almost 20 per cent) US citizens since 2001. “With a long history of participating in the hostage-taking and detention of US and Western nationals, Iran has consistently used the tactic to try to gain leverage against Western countries, with one recently released research effort indicating that Iran has detained at least 66 foreign nationals since 2010,” read the report.

Those at RISK

For almost 31 per cent of the US nationals, the primary driver seems to have been work, the report suggests. It added that 19 per cent of the US nationals kidnapped were engineers, technicians, or managers engaged in their work when kidnapped.

Further six per cent of US nationals were business people engaged in a variety of sectors, six percent contractors engaged in security work, transportation, or other work in support of the US government or United Nations.

Moreover, the report suggests that travel and studying overseas resulted in 19 per cent of the US nationals taken hostage; US-based aid workers, missionaries, and employees of non-governmental organizations made up 16 per cent of the American hostages; and journalists accounted for another 16 per cent.

Read the full report HERE

Evan Gershkovich — the latest ‘wrongful’ detainee

On March 30, Russia’s Federal Security Service informed that it had detained the Wall Street Journal reporter in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg and opened an espionage case against him for collecting state secrets about the military-industrial complex, The Guardian reported.

Gershkovich has formally been charged with espionage — a charge which he has denied and said he was working as a journalist.

Soon after the news of Gershkovich’s detention came out, the top two leaders of the US Senate issued a rare bipartisan statement demanding his release. “We strongly condemn the wrongful detention of US citizen and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and demand the immediate release of this internationally known and respected independent journalist,” wrote the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, and the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell.

As per reports, Gershkovich is the first American journalist detained in Moscow on espionage charges since the end of the Cold War.

The US response to ‘wrongful detention’

The US had passed the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act in December 2020, and created a list of criteria for determining whether a US national’s detention abroad is considered wrongful.

Later on in July last year, the President Joe Biden-led administration, building on earlier executive order, issued “Bolstering Efforts to Bring Hostages and Wrongfully Detained United States Nationals Home”, which elevated wrongful detention cases to the same status as hostage cases, providing mechanisms for increased interagency coordination, support for families and information sharing, reports said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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