Scores of attacks, including assassinations, abductions and assaults, were perpetrated by 25 governments last year against people outside their borders, new analysis reveals.
Data from the Washington DC-based pro-democracy organisation Freedom House reveals that the governments of Russia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Turkmenistan and China were the biggest five perpetrators of transnational repression in 2023.
Transnational repression is the use of tactics including electronic surveillance, physical assault, intimidation and threats to family in the home country to silence people living in exile. The Guardian’s Rights and freedom series is publishing a series of articles to highlight the dangers faced by citizens in countries including the UK.
Michael Abramowitz, the president of Freedom House, said: “The phenomenon of authoritarians striking down dissidents who have sought refuge abroad is not going away. Democracies will have to do more, and soon, to protect their sovereignty and their fundamental values.”
The first known cases of transitional repression sanctioned by the governments of Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador, Myanmar, Sierra Leone and Yemen also took place last year.
Forty-four countries – more than a fifth of the world’s national governments – have reached beyond their borders over the past decade in an attempt to forcibly silence exiled political activists, journalists, former regime insiders and members of ethnic or religious minorities.
The analysis reveals that, in total, 125 physical attacks – which also included detentions and unlawful deportation – were ordered by states against individuals based abroad during 2023.
The Russian government was responsible for at least 18 documented incidents of transnational repression last year. The Kremlin targeted anti-war activists and other Russian defectors in Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan among others, with victims facing renditions or deportation.
The Cambodian government perpetrated at least 15 incidents of transnational repression, including one where four Cambodian activists were assaulted in neighbouring Thailand.
Iran is increasingly targeting people outside its borders, with a high-profile case last year involving counter-terrorism police investigating serious threats against London-based staff at a Farsi-language news channel. BBC staff in London subsequently told the Guardian they feared walking outside alone after being harassed by the Iranian authorities.
Elsewhere, agents of the Indian government were accused by Canadian and US intelligence of carrying out the assassination of the Canada-based Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar and planning an assassination attempt against another, based in the US.
Last month MPs in the UK raised concerns over the safety of Sikh activists in Britain after an “intelligence hitlist” emerged targeting individuals living outside India.
Between 2014 and 2023, Freedom House recorded 1,034 direct, physical incidents of transnational repression committed by 44 governments in 100 target countries, with China accounting for a quarter of all documented incidents. Other prolific perpetrators since 2014 include Turkey, Tajikistan, Russia and Egypt.
Yana Gorokhovskaia, the research director for strategy and design at Freedom House, said: “It’s clear that governments are not being deterred from violating sovereignty and targeting dissidents living abroad.”
