Freedom House Methods of Transnational Repression DIRECT ATTACKS CO-OPTING OTHER COUNTRIES MOBILITY CONTROLS Attacking the individual physically without intermediary, such as through assassination, assault, or kidnapping. Manipulating the institutions of another country to detain, deport, or render an individual. Restricting the ability of an individual to travel internationally, often through passport or document control. THREATS FROM A DISTANCE Repressing individuals abroad without leaving the sovereign territory of the origin country, such as through spyware or coercion by proxy. Although every country’s use of transnational repression is distinct, there are shared features across incidents that make them comparable. Erhaim’s movement automatically triggered the involvement of the UK authorities. In other words, by exercising a bureaucratic lever of transnational repression, Assad’s authoritarian regime was able to co-opt UK institutions. “I think this is the most scary thing: if I was caught in Emirates or in Jordan, I would have been deported back to Damascus, which means me certainly being killed under torture because I am wanted [by] the regime,” Erhaim told Freedom House. Except for in cases of in-transit detention, there are few opportunities for intervention on behalf of the target. And even then, as Erhaim’s detention in the United Kingdom shows, strong democracies may not be equipped to recognize mobility controls for the form of transnational repression that they are. As border controls grow increasingly securitized globally, the effect of mobility controls also grows. The final category of mobility control involves denial of consular services, including issuing or renewing passports or other important government documentation. In contrast to passport cancellation or reporting, the express goal of this method is to coerce an individual into returning to the home country in order to acquire the necessary documentation. This sets up an incredibly difficult choice: return to the home country and potentially face imprisonment or worse, or face losing documentation that grants the ability to travel, gain legal residency, and seek employment. Faced with this choice, threatened exiles sometimes resort to extreme measures, crossing borders unofficially or obtaining false documents in order to reach safer countries where they can apply for asylum. The targeting of an exile’s loved ones who remain in the home country, and digital harassment and attacks, are very common forms of transnational repression. These threats from a distance are so widespread that measuring them is practically impossible, which is why they were not coded for this report. In this remote form, the normative cost of transnational repression is low, as threats from a distance do not require breaching the sovereignty of the host country. However, they are disproportionately high-benefit for the perpetrating country: having one’s private life exposed after a malware attack, or learning that a family member was threatened, can prompt a person to scale back or halt rights activism or other undesired behavior immediately. Mobility controls are a low-cost option for host countries, as they already have autonomy over their nationals’ documents. Threats from a distance “Many people took advantage of my mother, [using her] to force me to comply with their wishes,” exiled Vietnamese blogger Bùi Thanh Hiếu, alias Người Buôn Gió, wrote in a freedomhouse.org 13