DEFENDING DEMOCRACY IN EXILE Policy Responses to Transnational Repression and the origin state. For example, while Turkey has recently publicly stopped a plan to kidnap an Iranian pilot, the Iranian intelligence service is active in the country and members of the Iranian diaspora in Turkey have been killed in the past.31 Second, longer waits for resettlement increase the likelihood that origin states may locate targeted individuals and engineer their deportation from Turkey. This was the case recently with an ethnic Turkmen from Uzbekistan who was active in the Turkmen diaspora; although he had applied for asylum, Turkey deported him without due process in January 2022 at the request of Uzbekistan’s government.32 Similarly, in 2019, Turkey deported dozens of Iranians at the request of that country’s authorities, and some were subsequently sentenced to death.33 Other Iranians, including a prominent women’s rights activist, were threatened with deportation until a public uproar pushed Turkish officials to reverse course.34 A lack of safeguards in deportation procedures that severely reduces the likelihood that lawyers or civil society can intervene in cases where someone is being targeted for expulsion because of their political activism. While the deportation of Iranians seems to be calculated in part to maintain good relations with Iran, the deportation of at least one Egyptian national facing a death sentence resulted from a failure to properly vet the risks of returning someone to their home state. Mohamed Abdelhafiz was returned to Egypt after arriving in Istanbul from Sudan without a proper visa.35 Eight police officers responsible for the deportation were eventually fired but the case did not lead to any general examination of the migration system’s weaknesses. Of particular concern in this regard are a lack of safeguards in deportation procedures that severely reduces the likelihood that lawyers or civil society can intervene in cases where someone is being targeted for expulsion because of their political activism. Some of the most striking problems are that deportation decisions can be appealed only within seven days and information about the whereabouts of people in predeportation detention is not easily accessible, making timely appeals almost impossible.36 6 @FreedomHouse Misapplying security designations The widespread use of security designations opens the door to abuse by states seeking to target individuals beyond their borders. Security designations, or restrictive codes, may be imposed by a court or by various state agencies, including the intelligence agency. Almost 100,000 people are said to have these designations in Turkey today.37 Code G-87, “individual who poses a danger to general safety”, is one such designation that is meant to be reserved for people who pose a serious and immediate threat but has been applied to various foreign dissidents and activists including those from China, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Documents obtained by human rights groups recently showed that several targeted Turkmen activists had this designation.38 It has also been used to deport political opponents to Tajikistan39 and to deny protection to Iranians seeking asylum, as well as to stop prominent Uyghur activists from entering the country.40 The source of information that leads to an individual receiving this designation is not publicly known but appears to come at least in part from foreign governments and is not independently vetted by Turkish authorities. The nontransparent method by which this designation is applied has serious consequences for vulnerable people residing in Turkey. Uyghurs in Turkey Despite the recent negative treatment of Uyghurs by authorities noted above, this diaspora historically has been welcomed in Turkey. Uyghurs have been arriving in the country for more than seventy years, driven by waves of opportunity and repression.41 The first, relatively small group of Uyghurs arrived in Turkey with the assistance of the UNHCR and eventually received citizenship in the early 1950s. More recently, groups of Uyghurs have come to Turkey from China, Egypt, and Central Asian states. While Turkey is an appealing destination because of common cultural, religion and linguistic traditions, Uyghurs—one of the groups targeted most by transnational repression globally42—are not well protected against the risk of being forcibly returned to China and increasingly face the possibility of detention as a consequence for political activism. Turkey grants permanent residency permits to Uyghurs who can prove their identity with official documents through a special state agency called the Office for Foreigners with Turkic Origin and Descent. Those who cannot prove their identity because their official documents—usually a Chinese passport—have expired are instead granted a humanitarian residence permit. This practice helps Uyghurs avoid interacting #TransnationalRepression