India among 55 regimes using travel restrictions on critics: Freedom House

At least 55 governments around the world are using travel restrictions as part of their repressive tactics against perceived political opponents, according to a report released on Thursday.

Revoking citizenship, imposing travel bans, confiscating passports and denying consular services are among the methods used by authoritarian regimes to restrict the freedom of movement of people seen as a threat, according to Freedom House, which issued the report.

The report was compiled in part based on interviews with 31 people from Belarus, India, Nicaragua, Rwanda and Saudi Arabia who "experienced mobility controls firsthand," Freedom House said.

The governments cited in the report use at least one of these four methods in retribution for political activism or dissent, the US nonprofit dedicated to promoting democracy said.

"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," Sedaca said.

One of the most high-profile examples was the October 2018 assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul when he went to pick up documents needed for his marriage to his Turkish fiancee.

Freedom House also cited Nicaragua's deportation of 222 political prisoners to the United States in 2023 whose citizenship was then revoked.

"I do not have a valid identity in Nicaragua and my children do not have a father or mother because their father and mother do not exist," said Carlos Fernando Chamorro, founder of the news website Confidencial in Nicaragua.

"We have had all of our property confiscated, our house, all of our assets, our retirement pensions."

Six UK-based pro-democracy activists from Hong Kong had their passports canceled in June, Freedom House said, and Eritreans abroad have been forced to sign a "regret and repentance" form to receive consular services.

The Middle East is the region where revoking citizenship is most commonly used, the report said, and the authorities in Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates have stripped hundreds of political dissidents, human rights activists, journalists, and others of their nationality over the last decade, according to Freedom House.

About 40 governments impose restrictions on movement in or out of the country, and in several states, including India and Saudi Arabia, there is no official list -- victims only find out they are targeted when arriving at the airport or through rumours.

The governments of 38 countries restrict movement of their nationals by controlling access to key documents such as passports, the report said, and 12 of them deny consular services such as passport renewal or the issuance of birth or marriage certificates.