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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 22, 2024

NEW REPORT: Authoritarians Tighten Controls on Freedom of Movement as Part of a Growing Repression Toolkit to Stifle Dissent Worldwide

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The governments of at least 55 countries restrict freedom of movement to punish and intimidate perceived critics.



WASHINGTON—Authoritarian governments around the world are restricting freedom of movement in retribution for political activism and dissent, according to a new report released today by Freedom House.

The report, No Way In or Out: Authoritarian Controls on the Freedom of Movement

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, finds that the governments of at least 55 countries are subjecting people they perceive as a political threat to a variety of repressive tactics, including travel bans, revocation of citizenship, confiscation of passports, and denial of consular services. The new report is based in part on interviews with 31 individuals from Belarus, India, Nicaragua, Rwanda, and Saudi Arabia who experienced mobility controls firsthand. These controls accompany other well-known authoritarian tactics of political imprisonment and transnational repression. Autocrats cast a wide net with mobility controls, applying them even to the families of targeted individuals as a form of collective punishment.

“Authoritarians are looking for any possible means to deter perceived opponents from speaking out,” said Nicole Bibbins Sedaca, interim president of Freedom House. “Without more awareness and concerted efforts by the international community to address movement restrictions, political imprisonment, and transnational repression, the use of these tactics to muzzle dissent and violate fundamental rights will only grow.”

Key Findings:

The governments of at least 55 countries around the world, including India, Nicaragua, and Saudi Arabia, restrict freedom of movement to punish, coerce, or control people whom they view as political threats or opponents.

The four main tactics for restricting mobility are revoking citizenship, controlling access to key documents, denying consular services, and imposing travel bans.

Revoking citizenship was used by the governments of seven of the 55 countries in an effort to punish citizens for political activism or dissent, rendering many of the victims stateless. In 2023, Daniel Ortega’s regime in Nicaragua deported 222 political prisoners to the United States. Soon afterward, a Nicaraguan court ordered the former prisoners’ citizenship to be revoked and their property confiscated.

Controlling access to key documents, such as passports, was a tactic used by the governments of at least 38 countries. In 2023, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the government of Turkey had violated the rights of three academics in 2016 by canceling their passports after they signed an Academics for Peace petition.

Denying consular services was used by the governments of at least 12 of the 55 countries, and it typically includes manipulating passport renewal processes or preventing access to birth and marriage certificates for citizens living abroad. In 2023, the government of Belarus issued a presidential decree forbidding Belarusian consulates from offering passport renewal services. The order endangered approximately 300,000 Belarusians living abroad, as many are at risk of being imprisoned should they return to the country.

Banning travel is the most widespread, documented restriction on freedom of movement, and was used by the governments of at least 40 countries. This tactic includes preventing citizens from leaving or returning to their home country. Since 2017, Saudi authorities have increasingly resorted to informal travel bans that are sometimes communicated to individuals only when they attempt to leave the kingdom and that often lack legal explanations, making them harder to document and challenge.

Restrictions on freedom of movement are often imposed arbitrarily, leaving victims without a means to effectively challenge them. They are also frequently combined with other forms of repression, including asset seizures, smear campaigns, and bogus criminal charges.

The impacts of mobility controls include, separation from family members, inability to pursue educational or professional opportunities, emotional and mental suffering, and loss of legal status.

“Restrictions on mobility produce a wider chilling effect on people’s ability to speak out freely and participate in activism,” said Amy Slipowitz, report coauthor and research manager for the Fred Hiatt Program to Free Political Prisoners. “Democratic governments must hold the regimes applying these tactics accountable and review their own migration policies to ensure that they do not contribute to the hardship inflicted on individuals facing restrictions on their freedom of movement.”

The report identifies steps that democratic governments and civil society organizations can take to counter authoritarianism and mobility restrictions, including the following:

Governments and civil society organizations should raise awareness of the threat posed by restrictions on freedom of movement by publicly condemning practices like revocation of citizenship, document controls, denial of consular services, and the application of travel bans; including these practices in their human rights reports; and raising the issue at international forums.

When calling for the release of political prisoners, governments and civil society organizations should emphasize that releases must be unconditional. All charges should be dropped and expunged, and release should not be accompanied by any official or unofficial travel restrictions on the former prisoner or their family.

Governments and civil society organizations should assist individuals subjected to restrictions on their freedom of movement by helping them obtain documentation of travel restrictions that may have been imposed on them or their families by the government in their country of origin.

Click here

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to read the full report and recommendations.

To schedule an interview with Freedom House experts, please contact Maryam Iftikhar at [email protected]

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Freedom House is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to create a world where all are free.

We inform the world about threats to freedom, mobilize global action, and support democracy’s defenders.

Copyright © 2023 Freedom House

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