• China is responsible for the highest number of Transnational Repression (TNI) with more cases than the Turkey and Russia (number 2 and 3) combined
• The report by Freedom House is citing more abuse of Interpol for authoritarian purposes
• There is growing response but uneven protection among democratic states as the report provides recommendation to protect human rights

Here is the full report: Collaboration and Resistance: Tracking Transnational Repression in 202 (pdf)

Last year, governments all over the world assassinated, assaulted, kidnapped, threatened, and harassed critics beyond their borders. Freedom House recorded 126 new incidents of physical, direct transnational repression during the year, bringing the total number of cases in our database, which spans 2014 to 2025, to 1,375.

Autocrats collaborating in Southeast Asia and in East Africa were responsible for the majority of incidents recorded during the year. Thailand cooperated with both Chinese and Vietnamese authorities to detain and return members of minority groups. The deportation of 40 Uyghur men to China in February cemented China’s status as the world’s leading perpetrator of transnational repression. In East Africa, Kenyan, Ugandan, and Tanzanian authorities helped each other track, detain, and return activists in an effort to impede civic mobilization ahead of and during elections.

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Collaboration among authoritarian governments fueled transnational repression in Southeast Asia and East Africa in 2025. Over half of the incidents recorded last year—69 of 126—occurred in these two regions.2 In Asia, the collaboration was driven by geopolitical pressure and economic incentives from Beijing. In Africa, meanwhile, collaboration stemmed from a mutual desire to suppress mobilization by activists during especially tense political moments, like the lead-up to elections.

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Perpetrator governments continued to weaponize Interpol to bolster their transnational repression efforts in 2025. Despite suggestions in some media coverage that it is a global policing force with the power of arrest, Interpol is in fact an organization that facilitates law enforcement cooperation across borders through information sharing … But this information-sharing function is routinely abused by some of its 196 member countries for the purpose of transnational repression. In 2025, Freedom House recorded 11 incidents that were linked to Interpol. Governments including Egypt, Kuwait, and Turkmenistan contravened the organization’s own constitution by manipulating the law enforcement network to pursue regime opponents abroad on political grounds.

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Democracies Take Action to Counter Transnational Repression, but Gaps Remain … Host countries where exiled dissidents and activists have taken refuge are working together to create responses to the threat posed by transnational repression and warning targeted individuals about security concerns. But protection remains unevenly available in Europe and elsewhere, while changes to migration enforcement policies in the United States are exposing exiled individuals to the threat of transnational repression.

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Recommendations

• [Governments should] adopt and codify a government-wide definition of transnational repression that can be used across departments and agencies and in official communications …

• Apply sanctions and visa bans against foreign government officials who facilitate transnational repression via forced returns …

• Interpol Member States should consider increasing their funding to the organization’s oversight bodies: the Notices and Diffusion Task Force and the Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files …

• Continue to engage directly with diaspora communities by creating online resources, providing information on ways to report transnational repression, and connecting communities with local law enforcement …

• Ensure that immigration enforcement does not facilitate transnational repression …

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