In some ways the taking of innocent hostages is worse than their immediate murder. When terrorists seize an individual, the implicit threat is that unless their demands are met, that person will be killed. Thus the victim has been sentenced to a living death. And the fear and anguish he or she feels is mirrored by family and friends.

And terrorists continue to use this horrific crime because they understand the pressure that distraught citizens can bring to bear on their government. The ransom demand, be it cash, as is typically the case with Somali pirates operating in the Indian Ocean, or the release of captured terrorists, has all too often been met. The UK is one of the few countries that has said publicly that it will not bow to the demands of kidnappers. The British take the view that caving in merely makes it inevitable that more of their nationals will be taken, because the terrorists will appreciate that their loathsome crime is a source of easy money. In the past the French have held the opposite view and negotiated with the abductors. These deals have generally been denied, which seems utterly pointless since the false claim that Paris has acted toughly fools no one, especially not the terrorists.

The latest seizure of blameless civilians involves four water engineers working in Libya. A South Korean and three Filipinos were kidnapped at the start of July by an unidentified armed group. They were working on the Great Man-Made River, the remarkable scheme of the late dictator Muammar Gaddafi to bring water from vast aquifers beneath the Sahara Desert to the cities along the northern coastal belt. This system, along with oil pipelines, has been a regular target for a number of lawless Libya’s vicious militias, as well as being shut down by striking workers demanding more money, more jobs or more security.

The likelihood is, however, that these latest victims have been seized by Daesh (the self-proclaimed IS) terrorists or gunmen from Islamist militias allied to them, such as the Benghazi Defense Brigades. The South Korean government in Seoul has diverted a warship to Libya from the international naval force involved in the anti-piracy operation in the Indian Ocean. In addition, the always-vocal Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has announced he is sending his country’s most modern frigate to Libya. Quite what these two vessels can achieve unless they are carrying highly-trained special forces is hard to imagine. Any troops aboard would need to be extremely well briefed on how to operate in the completely alien environment of the Libyan desert against ruthless killers who have made it their lair. Even with the benefit of US or European military intelligence, a rescue operation would be fraught with danger, not least that some of the would-be rescuers could be captured and themselves become hostages.

If the South Korean and Philippines governments imagine that their each sending a gunboat was going to have the terrorists quaking in their boots, then they have miscalculated. If a serious rescue was ever intended it should have been mounted in secret. This high profile but meaningless show of military force will only prove to the kidnappers that their victims have a real value to their governments, which at some point can be converted into cash, arms or whatever evil concession they want.