The project compiled a catalogue of 608 direct, physical cases of transnational repression since 2014. In each incident, the origin country’s authorities physically reached an individual living abroad, whether through detention, assault, physical intimidation, unlawful deportation, rendition, or suspected assassination.

Freedom House is engaged in a multiyear study of transnational repression. Its latest report, Defending Democracy in Exile, published in June 2022, examines what is being done to protect exiles and diaspora members who are being intimidated and attacked by the governments from which they fled. The report assesses the responses mounted by host governments, international organizations, and technology companies. It builds on the findings of Out of Sight, Not Out of Reach: The Global Scale and Scope of Transnational Repression—the first global study of this dangerous practice, which Freedom House released in February 2021.

Related resources:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86Q_9IUosCE&t=71s
• https://freedomhouse.org/report/transnational-repression

This brief describes new cases and other developments in transnational repression from 2022. Freedom House’s database now includes information on 854 direct, physical incidents of transnational repression committed by 38 governments in 91 countries around the world since 2014.1 Last year, Freedom House recorded 79 incidents committed by 20 governments. The most prolific perpetrators of transnational repression continue to be the governments of China, Turkey, Russia, Egypt, and Tajikistan. However, more and more governments, from Djibouti to Bangladesh, are employing violence and harassment to repress critics living abroad and are managing to escape both international and domestic accountability.