TNR Watch: The Enduring Problem of Transnational Repression in Southeast Asia

Déjà vu: Two apparent incidents of transnational repression (TNR) endangered several diaspora activists in Southeast Asia in mid-September. On September 15, Khieo Lapchanh, a Thailand-based Laotian asylum seeker known for his online criticism of Laos’s government, went missing outside Bangkok. The 26-year-old, who was set to attend an asylum interview at the UN Refugee agency office in Bangkok a day later, reportedly was the target of an $8,000 bounty circulating online.

Three days after Lapchanh’s disappearance, three Vietnamese activists—Nguyen Duc Thuan, Ho Pham Hiep Huy, and Thai Cong Truong Son—were abducted from Cambodia and returned to Vietnam, where they are under investigation for “terrorism” and forging documents. Australian resident Hiep and dual Norwegian-Vietnamese citizen Thuan went to Cambodia to meet and train other Vietnamese human rights defenders. According to the prodemocracy organization Viet Tan, which Hiep and Thuan belong to, Vietnamese authorities initially prevented consular visits by Australian and Norwegian representatives to the two while they were in detention.

Regional hotspot: Half of the 126 physical incidents of transnational repression recorded by Freedom House in 2025 occurred in Southeast Asia, and the Mekong region of Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam is increasingly perilous for exiled rights defenders and dissidents. Neighboring states have worked together to corral and exchange wanted activists. Viet Tan and Human Rights Watch report that Thai authorities have allowed Vietnamese law enforcement officers and embassy staff to visit exiles in immigration detention centers to pressure them to return home. 

These governments also have failed to protect targeted individuals from extreme violence. In December 2018, the mutilated bodies of two Laos-based exiled Thai activists washed up along the Mekong River. More recently, in January 2025, a Thai hit man murdered a former Cambodian opposition legislator in Bangkok.

Action needed: The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs acknowledged the disappearance of Thuan but has not commented on any diplomatic actions it may have taken. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that his government was offering support to Hiep’s family, while Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was requesting more information from Vietnamese authorities. This comes as the Australian Senate took the important step of opening an inquiry into transnational repression in early September. Yet the coerced repatriation of Thuan and Hiep demands that the Norwegian and Australian governments more vocally condemn this violation of their right to free expression and association and apply pressure on Vietnam to release the two men.