Potential targets of transnational repression in the United States include people who support human rights and democracy in their former homelands, and those who advocate for the well-being of friends and family they left behind.

Key origin states: China, Egypt, Iran, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia

Best practices: High level of awareness among officials; Use of targeted sanctions against perpetrators

The United Kingdom has been the site of numerous high-profile attacks against exiles and is an important destination for diasporas at risk of transnational repression.

Key origin states: Bahrain, Pakistan, Russia, Rwanda

Best practices: Individuals warned of threats against them; Support for multilateral responses to incidents

Ukraine has long been home to a vibrant native civil society sector as well as many foreign dissidents and exiled activists.

Key origin states: Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkey, Uzbekistan

Best practices: Domestic criminal law used in cases of transnational repression; Visa free entry for many nationalities

Turkey has been a place of refuge for individuals fleeing repression in neighboring countries and is home to many Uyghurs, one of the diasporas most at risk today of transnational repression.

Key origin states: Azerbaijan, China, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan

Best practices: Special migration pathways for some vulnerable diaspora; Protection offered to some targeted individuals

The Turkish state’s current campaign of transnational repression is remarkable for its intensity, its geographic reach, and the suddenness with which it escalated. Since the coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in July 2016, the regime has pursued its perceived enemies in at least 31 different host countries spread across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. The campaign is also notable for its heavy reliance on renditions, in which the government and its intelligence agency persuade the targeted states to hand over individuals without due process, or with a slight fig leaf of legality. Freedom House catalogued 58 of these renditions since 2014. No other perpetrator state was found to have conducted such a large number of renditions, from so many host countries, during the coverage period—and the documented total is almost certainly an undercount.

Transnational Repression: a Threat to Rights and Security in the United States

Written Testimony by Annie Wilcox Boyajian, Vice President for Policy and Advocacy, Freedom House

House Homeland Security Committee Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence hearing

Safeguarding Dissident Voices: Addressing Transnational Repression Threats to Homeland Security

January 17, 2024

Policy recommendations for governments of countries that host exiles and targeted diasporas.

For decades, Thailand has served as a haven for people escaping war and political repression in countries throughout Southeast Asia and the broader region.

Key origin states: Cambodia, China, Laos, Vietnam

Best practices: Cooperation with UN High Commissioner for Refugees; Responsive to pressure from civil society about incidents

Sweden is one of the few countries in the world that explicitly recognize, in their national security framework and through criminal law, the threat posed by repressive foreign governments to residents who engage in political activism.

Key origin states: China, Eritrea, Russia

Best practices: National security framework identifies foreign state threats to individuals; Asylum process recognizes collective persecution

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.

South Africa hosts hundreds of thousands of refugees, asylum seekers, and diaspora members, largely from other African countries.

Key origin states: Rwanda

Best practices: Courts uphold the right to seek asylum; Expulsion of diplomats to impose accountability