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A Worrisome Trend: Travel Bans Imposed on Human Rights Defenders in the MENA Region

Many human rights defenders (HRDs) are targeted by authoritarian governments for their work promoting and protecting human rights. These attacks can take multiple forms, though one has become increasingly common in certain countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region: travel bans. What are the trends and patterns of these travel restrictions? This article addresses this question using a qualitative approach based on a combination of desk research and field research drawn from semi-structured interviews. In focusing on how five countries ­–Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and United Arab Emirates– utilise travel bans against HRDs, I observe that accusations linked to travel bans are often accompanied by other threats, that justifications used by authorities are frequently based on fabricated charges on national security, and that the increased use of travel bans muzzles the communication between HRDs and their regional and international partners.