Freedom House: published special report “Collaboration and Resistance: Tracking Transnational Repression in 2025”

Freedom House released a Special Report which tracked transnational repression in 2025, showing an escalation of the efforts to silence critics beyond their borders through assassination, assault, kidnapping, threats, and harassment. Freedom House documented 126 new incidents of physical transnational repression, bringing the total to 1,375 cases recorded between 2014 and 2025. 

Autocratic collaboration drove much of this activity. Thailand worked with Chinese and Vietnamese authorities to detain minority group members, while China's deportation of 40 Uyghur men cemented its role as the world's leading perpetrator. In East Africa, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania cooperated to suppress civic mobilization ahead of elections. The circle of perpetrator states also widened, with six new countries identified, bringing the total to at least 54 governments now attempting to silence dissidents abroad. Detention and unlawful deportation were the most common tactics, with Interpol notices exploited in at least 11 cases, revealing persistent loopholes despite reform efforts.

While awareness of transnational repression has grown significantly among democratic governments and multilateral bodies, with the G7, European Parliament, and OHCHR all publishing commitments to address it, serious protection gaps remain. Democratic governments rarely actively assist foreign security services in pursuing dissidents, but their migration systems can inadvertently facilitate transnational repression when due process protections are weakened. Freedom House calls on governments to adopt clear, codified definitions of transnational repression, apply sanctions against officials enabling forced returns, strengthen Interpol oversight, expand diaspora outreach, and ensure immigration enforcement never becomes a tool for authoritarian reach.