Diplomatic Immunity as “Get Out of Jail Free Cards”

Morgan McBride

2 days ago

6 min read

While diplomatic immunity has long been a fixture of international relations, the practice does get weaponized in a manner harmful for many.

Merriam-Webster: diplomatic immunity

An international law that gives foreign diplomats special rights in the country where they are working.

NOTE: Under diplomatic immunity, diplomats cannot be arrested and do not have to pay taxes while working abroad.

Diplomats can be granted diplomatic immunity, which exempts them from the laws of a foreign jurisdiction. The primary aim of diplomatic immunity is to allow diplomats to perform their duties without fear of harassment or arrest in other countries. Diplomats often work in precarious, high-stakes environments, making diplomatic immunity a vital safeguard for a complex job. Diplomatic immunity also extends to diplomats’ families, their homes, and personal belongings.

The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations from 1961 states that diplomats acting as officials of state can have near-total protection from subjection to the criminal, administrative, and civil laws of the country they visit on a diplomatic mission. Diplomats are beholden to their home nation’s laws; however, the diplomat’s country of origin also controls whether a foreign country can prosecute the diplomat.

Article 31 of the Vienna Convention explicitly lists three exceptions for civil and administrative diplomatic immunity: (1) a real action relating to private immovable/tangible property, (2) an action relating to succession, (3) an action relating to any professional or commercial activity exercised by the diplomatic agent in the receiving State outside his official functions. What does this mean? Diplomats covered by immunity remain subject to civil proceedings for private property violations, estate/inheritance violations, and lawsuits stemming from the diplomat’s professional or commercial activity beyond their diplomatic duties.

Additionally, if a diplomat is deemed persona non grata by their home nation, they are stripped of diplomatic immunity. The individual won’t immediately be criminally convicted or deported, but they immediately lose diplomatic protections without needing to explain.

Diplomatic passports can be issued to government diplomats, consuls, and their families stationed outside of their home country. These passports generally make travel easier, as they often don’t require visas to enter countries. Furthermore, diplomatic bags and pouches are specifically identified and sealed packages, pouches, envelopes, bags, or other containers used to transport official documents and other items for official diplomatic use. These “diplomatic pouches” cannot be opened, scanned, or detained by authorities. This means one must assume the “pouches” contain only files, though in theory they can hold a wide variety of items. The relatively loose definition of diplomatic “pouches” has made them a rather mysterious vessel at the behest of diplomatic officials.

While diplomatic immunity remains a critical component of the safety and longevity of diplomatic relations, numerous fault lines allow those covered by diplomatic immunity to push the boundaries of the law.

Diplomatic Immunity as "Get Out of Jail Free Cards"

Anne Sacoolas

In August 2019, Anne Sacoolas, the wife of U.S. government employee Jonathan Sacoolas, hit and killed 19-year-old Harry Dunn in Croughton, England. Anne Sacoolas had been driving on the wrong side of the road near a Royal Armed Forces army base, where her husband had been working in recent weeks. After Harry’s tragic death, the U.S. government invoked diplomatic immunity on Anne Sacoolas’ behalf, which allowed her to flee England back to the United States. Critical uproar in the U.K. and court battles in both nations erupted in the year following the incident, as the U.S. State Department denied the U.K.’s extradition request for Mrs. Sacoolas.

While Harry Dunn's family reached an undisclosed settlement in U.S. courts in 2021, Anne Sacoolas remained free from criminal proceedings for many years. With a change in U.K. law, Sacoolas was then able to appear in court via video link for charges of careless driving, to which she pleaded guilty during this video conference court proceeding. Her subsequent criminal sentence was eight months’ imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, meaning she would not have to go to jail for this crime. Throughout this, Harry Dunn and his family felt failed by the U.S. and U.K. governments in handling the crash investigation and the lengthy court proceedings.

“I made a promise to Harry in the hospital that we will get justice, and a mother never breaks her promise to her son.” — Charlotte Charles, Harry Dunn’s mother

Floyd Karamba

In the late 1980s, the son of Floyd Karamba, a Zimbabwean diplomat, reported to his school in Queens, New York, that his father had beaten him and strung him up by the wrists, linked to pipes in the basement of their house. Teachers and officials at his school saw some marks on his body and informed Social Services immediately. When Social Services and the police went to Karamba’s home, they took custody of all three of his children. Floyd Karamba’s diplomatic immunity prevented him from prosecution, yet the U.S. State Department ordered him home to Zimbabwe for his unacceptable conduct. Mr. Karamba returned to Zimbabwe with his wife and two daughters, while his son Terrence Karamba remained in the custody of New York’s Social Services department. According to psychologist Leonard Gries, after an interview with Terrence, “He has intense fear of going back to his father, and he’s angry at his mother because she didn’t protect him. He has a generalized fear that no one will protect him.”

Devolving into a geopolitical issue, authorities in the U.S. diplomatic sector expressed that the U.S. cannot/should not hold the children of a foreign diplomat in their custody. Terrence’s custody sparked protests in Zimbabwe and extensive court proceedings in the United States. On January 4th, 1988, the U.S. 2nd District Court of Appeals upheld an earlier court order sending Terrence Karamba from his foster home in New York to Zimbabwe’s U.N. Mission, before sending him back to Zimbabwe under government protection. Although the Zimbabwe government assured the U.S. government it aimed to protect Terence through this process, it remains unclear what happened to Terrence and Floyd Karamba back in Zimbabwe.

North Korea Diplomatic Smuggling Activity

North Korea’s long history of drug smuggling has been a pillar of the nation’s foreign capital acquisition, even through the work of its diplomatic officials. Sources indicate that this trend likely stems from the low pay of North Korea’s diplomats and their embassies’ needs for “self-financing”. A 2004 U.S. report detailed more than 50 incidents of North Korean diplomats attempting to smuggle drugs over the previous twenty years. Similarly, North Korea withdrew its embassy in Bulgaria after two North Korean diplomats received accusations of smuggling drugs due to a seizure of 621,000 narcotic pills by the Turkish police.

While this has been a long-standing phenomenon, the extensive sanctions implemented by the United Nations Security Council in September of 2017 shrunk North Korea’s export capabilities, reduced its overseas worker programs, and more. The nation’s reliance on smuggling and other illicit activities subsequently increased over the past decade, as North Korea has provided illicit items to criminal gangs, warlords, and other nefarious enterprises. In April of 2024, Ri Myong Ho was indicted for his role in money laundering and goods smuggling into North Korea during his stint as a diplomat with North Korea’s Embassy in Thailand. The allegations stem from his efforts to “negotiate contracts on behalf of a North Korean company to ship goods” by exploiting “multiple front companies and co-conspirators” through his role as the embassy’s third economic and commercial secretary. Assistant U.S. Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division declared that Ri Myong Ho “deliberately circumvented U.S. sanctions by using front companies to deceive American banks,” in a press release. While Ri Myong Ho’s current status is unclear, official indictments for 20 charges in U.S. courts remain the most recent information in this case.

Diplomats and Domestic Workers

A Rappler investigation compiled public records and exclusive interviews with survivors, showing that over 200 migrant domestic workers reported incidents of exploitation between 1988 and 2021, with 160 diplomats and employees of international organizations implicated. Wage theft, forced labor, nonpayment, and extreme emotional, psychological, and sexual abuse were pertinent themes throughout the allegations. Regrettably, 13 cases were dismissed because of diplomatic immunity.

Filipino domestic worker Virginia worked for the Pakistani Mission based in Geneva, Switzerland, for nearly twenty years. Virginia moved to Geneva with the aim of using her monthly salary of 1,200 Swiss francs to help provide for her two children. Upon her arrival for her new position, she discovered that the Pakistan Diplomatic Mission expected her to work three times a week unpaid, while supplementing her income with outside work to cover her expenses. Virginia further claims that her employer pressured her to sign backdated pay slips, so that there would be documentation, albeit false, showing that her employer met the contractual obligations. Her two decades of employment ceased via a WhatsApp message from her employer.

In 2021, Virginia and three other migrant domestic workers sued their employers at the Pakistani Mission, accusing their employers of forced labor conditions like unpaid wages, trafficking, and exploitation. Remarkably, the Swiss courts determined in September 2025 that diplomatic immunity cannot exempt diplomats from labor-related lawsuits. The new policy determination allows domestic workers to bring a legal claim against their employer without diplomatic immunity getting in the way.

“They are diplomats. They have immunity. They [are] like God; they are so powerful. But I have God and the truth on my side.” — expressed Virginia in 2024

While this remains a significant development for legal conventions, more work is needed to diminish the overarching authoritative power that the diplomatic community can wield.

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Diplomatic Immunity as “Get Out of Jail Free Cards”

While diplomatic immunity has long been a fixture of international relations, the practice does get weaponized in a manner harmful for many.