Iraq's Abduction Business

"Innocent civilians are being used by criminals and militias to raise money for their gangs and groups through exorbitant ransoms," said Major Rafik Khaled Jomaa, a senior Interior Ministry official.

"Unfortunately in many cases these innocent people are killed by criminals who, scared of being caught, dumb their bodies, sometimes mutilated, on the outskirts of the capital."

According to a senior officer at the ministry's kidnap department, at least 50 cases of abductions are reported every month, 70 percent of them in Baghdad alone.

"Baghdadis have turned into instruments of deal between criminals and victim’s families," said Faissal Ali Dosseki, chief of the ministry’s kidnap investigation department.

"The most dramatic situation is when you have children involved," he noted.

"We understand they are trying to protect their relatives and loved ones after criminals have asked them to keep the police out of it but it can delay our work and many times it is too late to help."

Local NGOs estimate that more than 50,000 people have been abducted since the 2003 US-led invasion, a figure the government disputes as exaggerated.

Haki Rawi, a psychologist and aid worker in a local NGO, blames poverty and unemployment for the worrying phenomenon.

"When you don’t have money and have to raise a family you get desperate," he said.

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