Arbitrary lists

The Exit Control List should be used for only one purpose: to keep in the country those who are facing criminal charges and are credibly judged to be a flight risk. It should not be a tool of oppression. All citizens have the right to freedom of movement and for the government to curtail that right requires just cause. Worries that activists might criticise state policy abroad is certainly not a good reason for placing someone’s name on the ECL. Neither is it an acceptable punishment for someone who has not even been charged with a crime. Yet every government wields the ECL as a weapon against its opponents. Which is why the law governing the use of the ECL clearly needs to be reformed. For starters, the process behind curtailing someone’s movement needs to be taken out of the hands of the interior ministry. Just as prison sentences and decisions on bail are made by judges, so too should those which prevent people from travelling abroad. As with all legal proceedings, those facing the prospect of a ban on travel should have the right to defend themselves and appeal the decision.

Right now, the process – and it is charitable to even call it a process – is capricious and arbitrary. Often people are placed on the ECL and do not even know about it. There are no laid-down standards for who can and cannot be placed on the list. Even worse, those who find themselves barred from travel may not even know why that decision has been made in the first place. This Kafkaesque nightmare needs to end. More broadly speaking, the state needs to understand that individual rights need to be upheld. Freedom of speech and freedom of assembly is chilled by the wanton use of such measures as the ECL. Journalists can face a travel ban for reporting the truth. Activists have to watch what they say or they could be stuck in a country where the state is hostile to them. For politicians, the offence can be something as simple as belonging to the wrong political party. We cannot call ourselves a democracy if we are not willing to provide due process to every citizen.