Proposed legislation in the U.S. seeking to combat transnational repression is a step forward in combatting the activities of regimes such as Cambodia’s, which routinely try to intimidate members of their diasporas.
The Transnational Repression Policy Act, introduced by Senator Jeff Merkley, would establish a transnational repression task force in the Department of Homeland Security to monitor intimidation by foreign governments of people in the U.S. and report annually to Congress. The bill needs to be combined with a comprehensive program of personal sanctions on those responsible for transnational repression, including asset freezes, to have the maximum effect.
Cambodia has a long and well-documented record of transnational repression. Critics of the Hun family regime who have escaped to Thailand have been tracked down and beaten. As prime minister in 2018, Hun Sen made open threats of violence against Cambodians living in Australia. The widow of government critic Kem Ley, who was assassinated in broad daylight in Phnom Penh in July 2016, fled to Australia with their five children, and is among the Cambodians to have received death threats there.
