A report by Freedom House shows that transnational political repression is growing as authoritarian governments continued to collaborate in the previous year to target critics, activists, journalists, and members of minority communities beyond their borders.
The report, Collaboration and Resistance: Tracking Transnational Repression in 2025, records 126 new incidents of physical transnational repression during the year. That brings the total number of documented cases from 2014 to 2025 to 1,375. The document finds that at least 54 governments have engaged in targeting dissidents abroad.
Transnational repression is carried out not only through assassination, kidnappings, harassment or assaults, but also through the use of migration systems, international police cooperation and other administrative procedures. Detention and unlawful deportations were the most common tactics used in 2025. The report shows how transnational repression can be embedded in routine state practices rather than appearing only in exceptional or covert operations.
Highlight on Southeast Asia and East Africa
The report highlights Southeast Asia and East Africa as the regions where authoritarian cooperation was especially prevalent last year.
One of the cases documented in the report is the February 2025 deportation of 40 Uyghur men from Thailand to China. According to the report, the men had spent more than a decade in Thai immigration detention and were returned despite international objections and offers from third countries to resettle them. The report also points to Thai cooperation with Vietnamese authorities in cases involving Hmong and Montagnard activists and religious leaders.
In other world regions such as East Africa, the report describes the growing coordination between Kenyan, Ugandan, and Tanzanian authorities to track, detain, abduct, or return activists across borders.
The abuse of Interpol for authoritarian purposes
One of the report’s most striking findings concerns the misuse of «Red Notices» issued by Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization based in Lyon, France. If an individual is wanted for criminal prosecution, governments can notify Interpol which would share the information with national police authorities worldwide for further action. At least 11 incidents in 2025 are linked to governments misusing this system of international police cooperation by submitting politically motivated requests against dissidents abroad. Cases involving Sudanese, Salvadoran and Turkmen individuals are cited as examples.
The report argues that reforms introduced over the past decade have not fully addressed the problem because Interpol’s oversight bodies remain underfunded and understaffed, so abusive notices continue to pass through the system. Even if politically motivated notices are later withdrawn, targeted individuals may already have suffered detention, border stops, extradition proceedings, and reputational harm.
A growing response but uneven protection
Democratic governments and multilateral institutions have become more attentive to the problem of transnational repression, the report says. In the last years, the G7, the European Parliament, and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights are among the bodies that took steps to recognize and address the issue. Australia, France, and the United Kingdom are among the countries which expanded public guidance and outreach for communities that may be vulnerable to authoritarian threats from abroad.
At the same time, the report says that protection remains uneven. While some host governments have improved monitoring and security responses, migration and asylum systems can still expose political activists and dissidents to danger when people are detained or deported without adequate safeguards against misuse.
Freedom House calls for a clearer definition of transnational repression, stronger accountability for officials involved in forced returns, more resources for Interpol’s oversight systems and immigration procedures that do not enable automatic persecution across borders and which respect human rights and security.
