Iraq Update: Corporate Kidnappings

Wednesday, 18 June 2014

Iraq Update: Corporate Kidnappings

40 Indians working for a Turkish construction company in Mosul, Iraq were taken hostage by ISIS.

During the last Iraqi insurgency, the kidnapping of foreign workers provide three benefits:

Financing (ransom) as well as pressure on the company (the Turkish construction company) to withdraw from contracts in Iraq.
Pressure on the governments where the workers are from (in this case, India). Eventually, the governments are forced to block all citizen from travelling to Iraq.
Drive up costs and slow down work. The last time this happened, costs more than doubled for companies operating in Iraq, due to the extra security needed to operate there and the slower pace of operations.

As this insurgency spreads towards Baghdad (and into it), this type of activity is going to start to put the Iraqi economy into reverse (accelerating the failure).

Posted at 03:17 PM | Permalink

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