2023 Findings
U.S. Nationals remain held overseas at elevated levels despite historic recent success in securing releases
90%
U.S. nationals held captive are wrongful detainees
59
U.S. nationals are known to be held in at least 15 countries
29%
decrease in last year of U.S. nationals held hostage
31%
decrease in the last year of U.S. nationals who continue to be unjustly held by foreign governments
6
U.S. nationals, of the current hostage and wrongful detention cases, have been held for more than 10 years
79%
of U.S. nationals currently wrongfully detained are held in China, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela
Report Overview
Over the past decade we’ve seen historic levels of U.S. nationals wrongfully detained by foreign governments abroad. With the increase in the number of wrongful detentions, there has been a substantial rise in the number of U.S. nationals who continue to be held by state actors solely for the purpose of gaining political leverage or seeking concessions from the United States.
At the same time, the number of U.S. nationals held hostage by terrorist organizations, militant groups, and/or pirates has fluctuated over the past two decades. Overall, there has been a general downward trend of hostage-takings since 2016. As such, wrongful detentions now account for the vast majority of U.S. nationals currently held captive overseas.
Since 2022 there have been at least 25 wrongful detainees and nine hostages released from captivity. Recent success in bringing U.S. nationals home is likely due to the maturation of the U.S. hostage enterprise and the empowerment of interagency leadership. While Presidential Policy Directive 30 and the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act have provided the appropriate structures required to prioritize hostage and wrongful detainee cases, the administration must continue to prioritize these issues and fix bureaucratic obstacles that slow down the process in order to bring more U.S. nationals home.
Of the 59[1] U.S. nationals held hostage or wrongfully detained globally, six people have been held for over 10 years. It’s time to accelerate recent momentum and bring all U.S. captives home.
[1] At the time Bringing Americans Home 2023 was published, there were 59 U.S. nationals held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad.
A NOTE FROM our PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER
WE MUST PRIORITIZE THE SAFE RETURN OF OUR PEOPLE
Dear Fellow Americans,
From a 2012 speech by James Foley at Marquette University: “For some reason, I have physical courage, but really when I think about it, that’s nothing compared to moral courage. I can go and get those shots, but if I don’t have the moral courage to challenge authority, to write about things that are going to maybe have reprisals on my career, if I don’t have that moral courage, we don’t have journalism.”
Jim’s words have haunted and challenged me. Do I have the moral courage to challenge the authority and priorities of our government to fight for others held hostage or wrongfully detained? Do you?
Does our government have the nonpartisan, apolitical moral compass to prioritize the return of fellow Americans?
The James W. Foley Legacy Foundation was started with the firm hope that our beloved country would commit to bringing our people home when they are taken captive abroad simply for being American citizens.
We are doing better. When four Americans, including my son Jim, were kidnapped by ISIS in 2012, our country refused to speak to their captors. We chose not to negotiate. We chose to abandon them to the terrorists, who used their horrific public executions as hate propaganda and recruitment.
Since 2014, America has chosen to do better. President Barack Obama’s Presidential Policy Directive creating the U.S. hostage enterprise in 2015, Congress’ passage of the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act in 2020, leadership by both the Trump and Biden administrations, the 2022 Biden Executive Order, and committed individuals both inside and outside of government have brought more than 122 U.S. nationals home from overseas captivity. AND two of the jihadists responsible for the torture and murder of Americans have been convicted and held accountable for their acts of terror.
Unfortunately, the threat to Americans traveling or working internationally continues to grow. Americans are now increasingly targeted and wrongfully detained by other countries, particularly our adversaries: China, Iran, Russia, Syria, and Venezuela. Recent unlawful arrests in Russia of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Olympic athlete Britney Griner illustrate this growing challenge.
It breaks my heart to witness the ongoing anguish of families with loved ones held hostage or wrongfully detained. The desperation of ever longer imprisonment of our citizens and legal permanent residents prompted 15 families to come together in 2022 to create the Bring Our Families Home campaign and design a Hostage/Detainee flag similar to the POW flag to raise public consciousness about these issues and to personalize the impact by publicly sharing the stories of their loved ones.
We must have the moral courage to prioritize the safe return of our people. We must have the resolve to engage persistently in shrewd dialogue with our adversaries. We must have the audacity to use all tools – ransom as lure, prisoner exchanges, whatever it takes – to bring our people home and to be relentless in seeking accountability and pushing deterrence.
Today we present the fifth Bringing Americans Home report to update you, the American public, and to challenge the United States of America to prioritize the return of U.S. nationals taken captive abroad.
Jim aspired to be a man of moral courage. Let us be inspired by the moral courage of Jim and the other Americans killed by ISIS at the same time – Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig, and Kayla Mueller – and aspire as a nation to make the freedom of our people our highest priority.
Diane Foley
President & Founder
Download Reports
2023 Report
Bringing Americans Home
Over the past decade we’ve seen historic levels of U.S. nationals wrongfully detained by foreign governments abroad. With the increase in the number of wrongful detentions, there has been …
Bringing Americans Home: 2022
From 2019–2021, the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation published a yearly assessment of the efficacy of the 2015 U.S. Hostage Policy Review and the implementation of PPD-30 and EO 13698. This report, an extension of those assessments, continues to examine how the U.S. government creates and implements policy in support of U.S. nationals taken hostage or wrongfully detained abroad as well as their families. Most importantly, this report seeks to better understand whether the new structures these policy changes have created help bring Americans home and offers nine recommendations to improve the government’s hostage enterprise.
Bringing Americans Home: 2021
This report, conducted by the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation (JWFLF), is a continuation of JWFLF’s assessments of the efficacy of the 2015 U.S. Hostage Policy Review and the implementation of Presidential Policy Directive 30 and Executive Order 13698. This study seeks to convey the perspectives of U.S. hostages, unlawfully or wrongfully held detainees, their family members, representatives, advocates, former senior military officials, and current and former U.S. officials. It, however, does not represent the perspectives of all former hostages, detainees, and their families, but only presents the perspectives of those who participated in this study
Bringing Americans Home: 2020
This report, conducted by the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation (JWFLF), is a continuation of JWFLF’s initial assessment of the efficacy of the 2015 U.S. Hostage Policy Review and the implementation of PPD-30 and EO 13698. This study was conducted from the perspective of American hostages, wrongfully held detainees, and their family members and representatives. It does not represent the perspective of all former hostages, detainees, and their families, but only presents the perspectives of those who participated in this study.
Bringing Americans Home: 2019
This assessment, conducted by the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, (JWFLF) is the first non-governmental review of the efficacy of the 2015 U.S. Hostage Policy Review and the implementation of Presidential Policy Directive 30 (PPD-30) and Executive Order 13698 (EO 13698) concerning hostage recovery activities. This study was conducted from the perspective of former American hostages, family members of current and former U.S. hostages, and others detained unlawfully or wrongfully by a foreign government. This study does not represent the perspective of all former hostages, detainees, and their families, but only presents the perspectives of those who participated in this study.
