Freedom House Iranian-American author who has written about the Iranian regime’s repression of women and the assassination of Iranian and Kurdish dissidents in Germany, that she was the target of Iranian operatives in the country.57 Even in settings with weak rule-of-law traditions, security forces have been able to stop assassination and kidnapping attempts. In 2021, Turkish authorities arrested six people with ties to the Russian state for preparing “armed actions targeting Chechen dissidents,”58 and separately foiled the attempted kidnapping of a former Iranian military pilot.59 Publicly available resources about the threat of transnational repression help to inform communities at risk. In 2021 and 2022, the FBI published two unclassified counterintelligence bulletins about the threat of transnational repression. The first was specifically designed to inform the country’s Uyghur population of the fact that Chinese government officials “target US-based Uyghurs through in-person and digital means to silence dissent, issue instructions, collect information, and compel compliance.”60 The second bulletin highlighted how the governments of other countries, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Rwanda, engage in transnational repression in the United States.61 In Germany, a brochure designed for refugees notes the presence of foreign operatives within the country who may surveil or intimidate them and encourages people to report suspicious activity to refugee accommodation centers, local police, or the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. However, German authorities provide the brochure—titled “How can I identify extremists and members of foreign secret services within my environment?”—in the context of efforts to combat extremism and radicalization among newcomers to the country. In so doing, they frame refugees as a potential source of security threats, rather than as potential victims of authoritarian reprisals. This adversarial relationship is counterproductive to the struggle against transnational repression, which requires trust and cooperation between the host government and targeted groups. MIGRATION POLICY Protection for refugees and asylum seekers Transnational repression, by definition, affects those who traverse national borders. Yet dissidents, activists, and human rights defenders often face insurmountable barriers to migration. Turkey, South Africa, and Ukraine have become default destinations for political exiles because they allow passport holders from dozens of different countries to enter without visas, effectively providing immediate relief for people fleeing repression. However, the United States, EU member states, and many other countries are difficult to access for people in search of short-term safety. In April 2022, the United Kingdom announced a plan to send asylum seekers who land on its shores to Rwanda. After having their cases processed in Rwanda, those granted refugee status would remain in that country.62 The plan disregards Rwanda’s poor domestic record on human rights and its status as one of the world’s most prodigious perpetrators of transnational repression.63 Democracies all over the world have shifted away from providing permanent protection to those who seek refuge. In addition to making their territories more difficult to reach, democracies all over the world have shifted away from providing permanent protection to those who seek refuge. In 2015, before a major increase in arrivals of asylum seekers from Syria and elsewhere, Germany gave 4 percent of asylum seekers subsidiary protection instead of refugee status. That percentage jumped to more than 30 percent during the subsequent migration crisis and has remained at a similar level since then. Whereas permanent legal residency allows people to feel secure in their host countries, temporary and subsidiary protections introduce legal precarity. Moreover, a lack of resources devoted to migration agencies has extended the time it takes to resettle refugees and review asylum claims made by people already in the country. All of these problems have implications for transnational repression. For example, people will be less likely to interact with law enforcement agencies if they fear it could endanger their tenuous immigration status, and those without permanent residency are forced to maintain contact with the embassies and consulates of the origin state. Awareness within migration processes Points of contact between refugees or asylum seekers and host state officials present opportunities for origin states freedomhouse.org 15