The United States has long served as a place of refuge for those fleeing repressive governments. But as authoritarianism spreads across the world, and social media gives dissidents a megaphone to cross the border, exiled activists become targets of the countries they fled.
In a report published last week by Freedom Houseorganism of control on democracy, were registered 85 public, direct and physical incidents of transnational repressionhim in 2021.
attacks
those who take refuge in the US They are not spared rebukes from Iran, China, Egypt, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, and others, who have targeted people on American soil, according to Freedom, “increasingly and aggressively ignoring the law, to threaten, harass, surveillance, stalking, and even physically conspiring to harm,” the report states.
Acts reminiscent of times of the Cold Warwhen the Soviet Union crossed borders to assassinate the so-called “enemies of the state”, as seen in series that review the time, such as the case of “The Americans”. “The way some governments act today has become brazen, and even outrageous,” says Freedom House’s Yana Gorokhovskaia.
“Autocratic governments are cooperating to promote the alarming idea that people they have no right to criticize to those in power, no matter where they are in the world,” adds Gorokhovskaia.
Transnational repression reached Brooklyn last summer. Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist and activist, was the target of an apparent plot to kidnap her and take her out of the country by speedboat.
“This is not some far-fetched movie plot. We argue that a group, backed by the iranian government, conspired to kidnap a US-based journalist here on our soil and forcibly return her to Iran,” said FBI Deputy Director William Sweeney.
And Gorokhovskaia pointed out that the incidents counted for this year’s report did not include the more subtle forms of pressure, from online abuse, hacking and blackmail and threats to family and friends who still live in their country of origin.
In 2020, a New York City police officer, originally from Tibet, was accused of acting as Chinese government illegal agent and use their position to gather information about the Tibetan diaspora. Baimadajie Angwang had come to the United States at the age of 17, and had been granted asylum after claiming that he would be tortured if he returned to China.
Measures
The United States government, alerted by the growth of these caseshas taken some steps: The Justice Department has begun charging people in connection with the transnational crackdown, and the FBI tracks crimes and has published a website that raises awareness and provides advice to victims.
“But more could be done,” notes Freedom House. “The path to legal immigration status that exists for many communities is difficult. And the United States is a diplomatic ally of some of the countries that attack dissidents abroad, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia”, they explain.
Riyadh’s attacks on critics abroad drew international attention for the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, Washington Post contributor and US permanent resident, based in Istanbul. But the United States has since sought to repair relations with Saudi Arabia and has never moved to personally sanction Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
“Right after that, things quickly changed for us. … It seemed that there was a reaction from the Saudi government that understood that it is okay to persecute us, and there would be no consequences. They can do whatever they want,” he pointed out to Freedom House an anonymous Saudi. The NGO interviewed a dozen people now living in the United States about how the threat of transnational repression had affected them.
claims
“When you don’t feel safe at home in the United States, that is a disaster,” said Sardar Pashaei, a former Iranian activist. “Where else on the planet should we go to feel safe?” he wonders.
“When you talk about authoritarianism, I think we often tend to talk about it as a problem that happens elsewhere. But it’s a problem right here in the United States, it’s happening to the people who live in this country, many of whom are citizens or permanent residents. It’s limits the exercise of rights that most of us consider ordinary and fundamental”, claims Gorokhovskaia.
International bodies like Interpol are part of the problem, with countries like Turkey, Russia and China using the crime-fighting body to issue “red alerts” against dissidents and exiles.
In late 2021, the US Congress passed the Transnational Repression Prevention and Accountability Act (TRAP), calling on the US government to Joe Biden to use his influence as Interpol’s biggest financier. And in March, in tune with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the governments of Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the United States asked Interpol to suspend Russian authorities’ access to tracking systems.
But the problem of harassment and violence towards dissident refugees is unlikely to go away any time soon. As Freedom House and other international organizations, including the UN itself, point out, authoritarianism has spread in recent years and democracy has declined.
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