The Hostage Business is a six-month investigation shedding light on the dark industry of kidnapping, negotiating and demanding ransoms.

The 48-minute documentary reveals previously unknown facts about hostage situations in Syria and Somalia, finding some nations, including Italy regularly pay ransoms while others insist they will not negotiate with those they label as “terrorists”.

Relying on leaked secret documents, photographs and eyewitness testimony, the film exposes the multimillion-dollar payments handed over for the release of a number of hostages in Syria.

It also exposes as false the story of a couple rescued from captivity in Somalia.

In fact, kidnappers released them after receiving a ransom.