British passport 'is death sentence' to kidnapped victims as UK and US refuse to pay ransoms to al-Qaeda, despite European governments handing over more than $125 million
Vincent Delory, one of the two French hostages killed after being kidnapped in Niger
The sight of the French state jet sitting on a desert tarmac as the foreign minister greets a relieved newly released hostage is a familiar one but comes at a price in the form of a multi-million euro ransom payments that has filled al-Qaeda's coffers.
Despite a landmark G8 agreement banning ransoms for kidnaps, European governments are pouring money into terrorist groups in return for the release of their citizens.
A new survey suggests al-Qaeda linked groups from Mali in West Africa to Syria have garnered $66 million (£39 million) in the last year from hostages, a lucrative revenue stream that has fuelled its rise.
All told the group has taken in $125 million since 2009.
"The Europeans have a lot to answer for. It's a completely two-faced policy They pay ransoms and then deny any was paid," Vicki Huddleston, a former US state department official told the New York Times, which compiled the figures. "The danger of this is not just that it grows the terrorist movement but that it makes all our citizens more vulnerable."
Only Britain and the US stand apart by point blank refusing to pay ransoms.
In fact one go-between complained that British officials almost certainly condemned Edwin Dyer to his fate in 2009.
"The British wanted me to send a message saying one last time that they wouldn't pay," the negotiator in Burkina Faco said. "I warned them, Don't do this. They sent the message anyway."
Dyer was killed but the Swiss couple and German he was held with were released after an 8 million euros ransom was paid. "A UK passport is essentially a death certificate," said Hans Dyer, his brother.
In fact one go-between complained that British officials almost certainly condemned Edwin Dyer to his fate in 2009.
"The British wanted me to send a message saying one last time that they wouldn't pay," the negotiator in Burkina Faco said. "I warned them, Don't do this. They sent the message anyway."
Dyer was killed but the Swiss couple and German he was held with were released after an 8 million euros ransom was paid. "A UK passport is essentially a death certificate," said Hans Dyer, his brother.
David Cameron used the last meeting of the G8 group before it fell apart this year following Russian aggression in Ukraine to promote a declaration to ban ransoms. The 2012 meeting at Lough Erne saw some of the biggest ransom payers agree that the practice was repugnant.
Months later however Laurent Fabius the French foreign minister and Jean-Yves Le Drian, the defence minister, were on the tarmac in Niamey, Niger, to welcome the release of four French hostages kidnapped in Niger have been freed after three years in captivity.
Thierry Dol, Marc Feret, Daniel Larribe and Pierre Legrand were working for French nuclear firm Areva when they were abducted in 2010 by al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a group that France was at the time at war with at the time in neighbouring Mali.
The French government and Ariva have never discloses details of the release, but deny that the alleged 30 million euros ransom was paid.
