Travel Safety and Security Case Study

Protecting your employees that travel internationally

Does your company require its employees to travel? Are you respecting your Duty of Care to your employees? Do you realize you are responsible for their safety, and do you know to what extent that responsibility extends?

People are your company's greatest asset. Make travel safety and security a priority today.

The Risk

The Department of State has issued a Worldwide Caution to update information on the continuing threat of terrorist actions and violence against U.S. citizens and interests throughout the world.

(US State Dept. Jan 24th 2012).

Threats to Businesses

• Adverse Publicity

The media is quick to jump on companies that fail to adequately protect executives traveling abroad. You don't want your company to be the "poster child" for firms that neglect to adequately train and protect their employees.

• Lawsuits

Victims and their families need to blame someone, usually the company that sent them, often unprepared, overseas.

• Emotional Costs

Company morale is critical. If your employees don't feel management is supportive and looking out for their safety and well-being, you may have executives who are reluctant to travel overseas to conduct business.

• Loss of Business as a result of low morale!

CASE 1
On September 28, 1976, Gustavo Curtis was kidnapped in Bogota. Believing that Curtis or his wife was involved in the kidnapping, his employer, the Beatrice Foods Company refused to pay the demanded $5 million ransom. After a lie detector cleared Mrs. Curtis, the company paid a $430,000 ransom to secure Curtis's release.

A year later, on March 25, 1978, the Curtis' filed suit in federal court in New York, asking $185 million in damages from Beatrice Foods on the grounds that the company had not done enough to protect Curtis or to affect his release.

CASE 2
The pregnant tourist who was brutally murdered in Puerto Rico Wednesday 4th February 2009 was looking forward to her upcoming wedding and the birth of her first child in May, her family told ABCNews.com.

"Sara was a devoted daughter, a free spirit and a person who had a love for life," said Joan Lang, the mother of Sara Kuszak, who was kidnapped and murdered after going for a jog on the Caribbean island.

Kuszak, 35, who had arrived from her home in Savannah, Ga., the night before she was found with her throat slashed, was a little more than five months pregnant with a baby boy, according to Lang.

Lang said she believes her daughter was simply keeping up with her exercise routine when she decided to take a walk early Wednesday morning. Authories say Kuszak was forced into a man's trunk in Fajardo, in eastern Puerto Rico.

Authorities traced the signal from a cell phone call Kuszak made from her kidnapper's car an hour before she was found dead. Her abductor, 36-year-old Eliezer Marquez Navedo, has reportedly been charged with two counts of rape and one count of kidnapping.

CASE 3
The UK government has called for the release of a kidnapped British woman whose husband was murdered during an attack at the Kenyan beach resort where they were on holiday.

The couple, who have not been named, were staying at the remote Kiwayu Safari Village, close to the Somalian border, when gunmen burst into their beach hut just after midnight on Sunday, September 11th 2011. The husband is believed to have been shot dead after trying to resist the assailants, who ordered the Britons to hand over their valuables. His wife was dragged to the speedboat on which the gunmen had arrived and has not been seen since. Kenyan police are refusing to speculate on who the attackers might be, but The Guardian has been told that officers fear the raid may have been carried out by members of the Somali Islamist insurgent group al-Shabaab rather than pirates.

The Kenyan government has sent anti-terror and special crimes officers to the area as part of an enormous search and rescue mission, but Ndegwa Muhoro, Director of the country's Criminal Investigation Department, said no word had yet been received from the woman's abductors.

"We believe it is a kidnap but we are yet to receive any communication from the alleged kidnappers... we are working to secure the safe and swift release of the British national who has been kidnapped and ask those involved to show compassion and release the individual immediately."

Police said the couple were attacked on the first night of their stay and were the resort's only guests.

The FCO (British Foreign and Commonwealth Office) repeated its warning against venturing within 18 miles (30km) of the Kenya-Somalia border, reminding travelers that there had been earlier attacks in Kenya carried out by Somali militia. Two western nuns were kidnapped in November 2008, and three aid workers were abducted in July 2009.

Attacks on tourists are unusual in Kenya, which is popular for its safari vacations and pristine beaches. According to its website, the secluded Kiwayu Safari Village takes "security and safety very seriously."

How SSG Security Group Will Protect Your Employees Traveling Abroad

• Come to your place of employment and train your employees for their specific trip
• Electronically monitor your travel with our 24/7 Operations Room and security consultants on constant standby
• Meet and Greet Services: we meet you when you arrive at your destination and escort you to your hotel or office
• Full Executive Protection Service: for the higher-risk traveler, we provide teams of highly trained and experienced Agents to protect you and your assets

Benefits to You and Your Organization

• Protection from liability

Implementing a security travel program shows potential litigators and your employees that you are fulfilling your "duty of care" and providing a safe environment in which to work, even when traveling.

• Morale boosters

Take care of your employees and they will be loyal in return.

• Risk reduction

Avoid the risk and expense of negative publicity. A company that receives negative press can see its reputation destroyed. Worse yet, it can be driven out of business

We keep your company's greatest asset - your people - safe and secure. Call SSG at 1-888-997-3434 today to schedule a consultation to improve international travel safety for your company's employees.