The Taliban Are Back in the Hostage Business

The Taliban have detained multiple foreign nationals, including Americans and Europeans, in Afghanistan in what appears to be a systematic roundup by the group, which has a history of holding Westerners hostage to trade for political advantage. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently said “several” U.S. citizens are prisoners of the Taliban. Others in Taliban custody include British and Polish citizens, their governments confirmed.

The detention of an unusually large number of Westerners, possibly more than a dozen, comes amid an alarming rise in hostage diplomacy—in which citizens of one state are captured and traded for advantage by another—by countries hostile to the United States. Russia detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in late March and accused him of spying for the United States, an accusation the Biden administration has denied.

The James W.  Foley Legacy Foundation, a media advocacy organization named for a U.S. photographer murdered by the Islamic State in Syria in 2014, found that the number of Americans wrongly held abroad has risen by 580 percent in the past decade, while the length of time they’re held has increased by 60 percent. Its 2022 report said “Iran, China, Venezuela, Syria, and Russia account for 75% of U.S. nationals currently wrongfully detained,” some for as long as four years, and that detentions are outpacing releases. 

“There are rising concerns that U.S. nationals are being increasingly targeted for detention in order to secure political leverage against the United States,” the report said.

There are any number of theories behind the Taliban’s recent dragnet. The sweep could be a sign that the Taliban aim to rid Afghanistan of any Western presence as they impose their extremist values, such as banning girls from post-primary education. Some security sources think the Taliban may be planning to use the foreigners as collateral for prisoner swaps, as they have several times before. Others think it’s a move to pressure the Biden administration to release billions of dollars in foreign reserves frozen by U.S. financial sanctions. Still others believe the hostages are meant to secure, at last, U.S. and Western recognition of an outlaw regime that still is persona non grata a year and half after its violent takeover of Afghanistan.

“The Taliban’s primary objective in abducting and detaining Western civilians is to compel their governments to establish direct communication with the Taliban regime instead of relying on nongovernment organizations,” said Mirwais Naab, a former deputy foreign minister of Afghanistan. The Taliban are also concerned about the potential for NGO workers to conduct espionage for the United States, he said.

Rafi Fazil, a former deputy national security advisor to the Islamic Republic, said this “new wave” of detentions was a reaction to diplomatic isolation “to build pressure on the West because they are not being recognized, and that is taking a huge toll.” De facto Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi has complained that the Taliban have met all conditions for diplomatic recognition and yet remain out in the cold. 

The Taliban have long found hostage-taking to be an expedient method of extracting favors from the United States. U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was held captive for five years by the Haqqani network, a Taliban affiliate headed by their current de facto interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, after the soldier deserted his base in southern Afghanistan in 2009. He was swapped in May 2014 for five Taliban operatives who had been in custody at Guantánamo Bay, in what was seen as a huge victory for the Islamists. 

Last year, the Taliban released former U.S. Navy diver Mark Frerichs after more than two years in return for Bashir Noorzai, a drug trafficker who was 17 years into a life sentence in the United States for conspiracy to traffic heroin. Filmmaker Ivor Shearer was released in September after four months’ detention. The Taliban claimed it was a goodwill gesture, and the U.S. State Department said no money or prisoners were exchanged for his freedom.

At the same time, Taliban leaders have been demanding the return of more than $9 billion in Afghanistan’s foreign exchange reserves held in banks in the United States and Europe. U.S. bans on financial transactions with sanctioned terrorists and institutions under their control were triggered when the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. (Many Taliban leaders are listed by the U.N. Security Council as terrorists, though not the group itself.) The resulting cash crisis is contributing to economic disaster. Anger at concerns that they’ll help themselves to the money could conceivably have pushed the Taliban back to their tried-and-tested tactic for getting what they want.

Blinken revealed the presence of Americans in Taliban detention to the House Foreign Affairs Committee last month. “There are several Americans who are being detained by the Taliban. We are working to secure their freedom,” he said. “As we speak, American citizens who identified themselves to us who are in Afghanistan—some of whom have been there since the withdrawal, some of whom went back to Afghanistan— … that we’re in contact with, [there are] about 175. Forty-four of them are ready to leave, and we are working to effectuate their departure.” 

In a statement to Foreign Policy, the State Department confirmed that “there are several U.S. nationals who are being detained by the Taliban.” No details were given “due to privacy considerations.” The U.S. government prioritizes the safe return of citizens held abroad and like many governments believes publicity exacerbates danger—which could explain the long silence on the Afghanistan detentions, some of which date back months.

The State Department also reiterated advice against travel to Afghanistan due to the threat of civil unrest, armed conflict, terrorism, and kidnapping: “Travel to all areas of Afghanistan is unsafe. The Dept. of State assesses the risk of kidnapping or violence against U.S. citizens in Afghanistan is high.” 

The number of Americans held by the Taliban could be a lot more than “several,” and perhaps as many as a dozen, according to sources familiar with the state of play. Three British detainees have been confirmed by the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office. Poland’s foreign ministry confirmed one citizen captive. Another Pole who was detained at the same time was released for health reasons, the sources said. French and Australian citizens are also possibly in Taliban custody; this could not be immediately confirmed. It’s not clear when or where all the detentions took place. 

The British government has confirmed the detention of three U.K. citizens, including two men with extensive experience working in Afghanistan on legitimate contracts and another who was traveling independently to make videos for social media. The two men on contracts were taken from a residential compound in Kabul on Jan. 11. One, 53-year-old medic Kevin Cornwell, whose family gave British media permission to name him, was working with a charity called Iqarus International, liaising with U.N. agencies to deliver aid. The man detained with him was the compound manager. Relatives said they were accused of possessing an illegal firearm, though family members say the gun was licensed by the Taliban and never used.

The men are in a wing for foreigners in a Kabul prison operated by the Taliban secret service, the General Directorate of Intelligence. After their detention was reported on April 1, they were allowed phone calls to families. Security sources say they may be moved to Kandahar in a possible first step to their release.

Poland’s foreign ministry said it was “aware of the case” of a citizen detained in Afghanistan, adding in a statement: “We cannot share any details with respect to the privacy and security of the person and their family.” It is believed that two Polish citizens were traveling with the British social media influencer, Miles Routledge, when he disappeared in early March. The British government has confirmed that Routledge is in Taliban custody, though his whereabouts and condition are unknown. 

Throughout the 20 years of the republic, which was propped up by the United States, NATO, and allies until its collapse in August 2021, thousands of foreigners lived in Kabul and elsewhere in the country. Many were diplomats, journalists, aid workers, and military contractors whose major threat was kidnapping for ransom or trade. Purpose-built compounds popped up on the outskirts of the city to provide secure accommodation, catering, and other creature comforts. The Taliban are believed to have targeted these compounds, which still provide services for the many foreigners who have returned to work with humanitarian organizations, as well as some hotels in the capital.

Afghanistan doesn’t have a functional justice system, and all previous laws have been canceled. As the Taliban are not recognized as the legitimate government, there’s no diplomatic representation for foreigners in custody, and they have no access to consular support. Most embassies closed when the republic fell, and many moved to Doha, the capital of Qatar. 

“By taking hostages and applying similar tactics employed by some of Afghanistan’s neighbors in the past, the Taliban hopes to coerce Western countries into engaging with them in a more diplomatic manner,” said Naab, the former deputy foreign minister. He criticized the way that Western governments and the United Nations have done little to actually curtail Taliban excesses, after enabling their takeover with the 2020 Doha peace deal and withdrawal agreement. 

“These developments are the outcome of dealing with terrorists and terrorist group propagators as a legitimate government, reflecting a myopic and poorly defined approach.”

Correction, April 6, 2023: A previous version of this article misstated Mark Frerichs’s branch of service.