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Challenges Growing in Efforts To Bring Home Americans Wrongfully Detained or Held Hostage Abroad

‘It can be difficult, particularly if the case has complex circumstances,’ the executive director of Hostage US, Liz Cathcart, tells The New York Sun.

SANA via AP
Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with Debra Tice, the mother of American journalist Austin Tice, who went missing in Syria in 2012, left, and Nizar Zakka, head of non-profit Hostage Aid Worldwide, center, at Damascus, Syria, January 20, 2025. SANA via AP
HOLLIE McKAY
HOLLIE McKAY

Ksenia Karelina, a naturalized American citizen, built a quiet life in Los Angeles, working at a luxury spa and nurturing her love for ballet. A Russian immigrant who came to America in 2012, she had carved out her own version of the American dream — one that now feels impossibly far away. 

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HOLLIE McKAY
HOLLIE McKAY

Ms. McKay is a war and humanitarian-focused international correspondent and author of 'Only Cry for the Living: Memos from Inside the ISIS Battlefield,' 'Afghanistan: The End of the US Footprint and Rise of the Taliban Rule,' and 'The Dictator's Wife.'

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