List of people who took refuge in a diplomatic mission

Because diplomatic missions, such as embassies and consulates, may not be entered by the host country without permission (even though they do not enjoy extraterritorial status), persons have from time to time taken refuge from a host-country's national authorities inside the embassy of another country.

Name	Notability	Reason for seeking refuge	Country	City	Mission's country	Start date	End date	Duration	Resolution
John William, Baron Ripperda	Dismissed Prime Minister of Spain	Sought for fraud, embezzlement	Spain	Madrid	Great Britain	April 13, 1726 (1726-04-13)	May 25, 1727 (1727-05-25)[1]	407 days	Arrested by the Spanish from inside of Ambassador's official residence (in breach of international law)[2]
José Tadeo Monagas	President of Venezuela	March Revolution	Venezuela	Caracas	France	March 15, 1858 (1858-03-15)	August 31, 1858 (1858-08-31)	170 days	Urrutia Protocol [es]: The Venezuelan government, along with the other signatories (United Kingdom, France, the United States, Brazil, the Netherlands and Spain) agreed to offer safe conduct to Tadeo Monagas, who left to France
José Manuel Balmaceda	President of Chile	Defeated in the Chilean Civil War	Chile	Santiago	Argentina	August 29, 1891 (1891-08-29)	September 18, 1891 (1891-09-18)	20 days	Committed suicide
Khalid bin Bargash	Sultan of Zanzibar	Defeated in the Anglo-Zanzibar War	Zanzibar	Zanzibar Town	Germany	August 27, 1896 (1896-08-27)	October 2, 1896 (1896-10-02)	36 days	Evacuated by German Navy to exile in German East Africa[3]
Augusto Roa Bastos	Paraguayan novelist, story-writer and journalist	Political persecution after criticising the military regime	Paraguay	Asunción	Brazil	1947 (1947)	1947 (1947)	40 days[4]	Negotiated exile in Argentina[5]
Leonardo Argüello Barreto	President of Nicaragua	Ousted by Anastasio Somoza García	Nicaragua	Managua	Mexico	May 26, 1947 (1947-05-26)	December 1947 (1947-12)	7 months	Negotiated exile in Mexico
Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre	Peruvian political theorist and politician; founder of APRA	APRA was outlawed by the Peruvian military-led dictatorship	Peru	Lima	Colombia	January 3, 1949 (1949-01-03)	April 6, 1954 (1954-04-06)	5 years, 3 months, 3 days	After heavy international pressure, was finally allowed to leave the country[citation needed]
Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán	President of Guatemala	Ousted by Carlos Castillo Armas	Guatemala	Guatemala City	Mexico	June 27, 1954 (1954-06-27)	June 28, 1954 (1954-06-28)	1 day	Negotiated exile in Mexico
Imre Nagy	Deposed Prime Minister of Hungary	Soviet intervention during Hungarian Revolution of 1956	Hungary	Budapest	Yugoslavia	November 4, 1956 (1956-11-04)	November 22, 1956 (1956-11-22)	18 days	Received a written guarantee of safe passage, but was nonetheless arrested upon leaving by the new, pro-Soviet government; later executed.
József Mindszenty	Hungarian cardinal				United States		September 28, 1971 (1971-09-28)	15 years	Negotiated exile in Austria
Reino Häyhänen	Soviet Lieutenant Colonel	defection	France	Paris	United States	November 4, 1956 (1956-11-04)	May 1957 (1957-05)	6 months	Moved to the United States
Guillermo Pacanins Acevedo [es]	Governor of the Federal District	1958 Venezuelan coup d'état against the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez	Venezuela	Caracas	Brazil	January 23, 1958 (1958-01-23)	January 26, 1958 (1958-01-26)	3 days	Left to Puerto Rico, then later to mainland United States[6]
Sharif Ali bin al-Hussein	Iraqi prince	coup led by Abd al-Karim Qasim	Iraq	Baghdad	Saudi Arabia	July 15, 1958 (1958-07-15)	September 1958 (1958-09)	2 months	Left to exile in Egypt, later to Lebanon and Britain
Narciso Campos Pontigo	Captain of the Cuban Rural Guard before 1959, biological father of the Cuban dictator Raúl Castro	Jailed after the Cuban revolution	Cuba	Havana	Brazil	1959 (1959)	1959 (1959)		Set free by personal order of Raúl Castro; got asylum in the Brazilian embassy, then fled to the United States[7][8][9][10]
Humberto Delgado	General of the Portuguese Air Force and opponent of the Salazar regime	Ran for President in 1958, lost to Américo Tomás in disputed results and was expelled from the military	Portugal	Lisbon	Brazil	January 12, 1959 (1959-01-12)	April 20, 1959 (1959-04-20)	98 days	Went into exile in Brazil
Olga María Rodríguez Fariñas and her two daughters	Cuban revolutionary who fought in the Cuban Revolution that deposed Fulgencio Batista and led to Fidel Castro's rise to power	Escaping persecution from Fidel Castro, whom Olga and her husband William Alexander Morgan were accused of conspiring against	Cuba	Havana	Brazil	January 4, 1961 (1961-01-04)[11]	March 1961 (1961-03)[12]	3 months[11]	Left the embassy in order to free her husband. Her husband was executed, and she was arrested and imprisoned for 10 years.[12]
José Serra	Brazilian politician; at the time, militant against the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964–1985)	escaping persecution from the Brazilian military government	Brazil	Brasília	Italy	April 1964 (1964-04)	July 1964 (1964-07)	3 months[citation needed]	Was granted safe conduct to leave into exile
Kong Le	Royal Lao Army Major-General[13][14]	escaped an unsuccessful Coup d'état	Laos	Vientiane	Indonesia	October 17, 1966 (1966-10-17)	October 17, 1966 (1966-10-17)	1 day	Left into exile to Indonesia
Leon Veillard	Captain in the Haitian Army and one of the leaders of the Tonton Macoute militia	Labeled as a traitor by dictator Papa Doc, who feared he was plotting to overthrow his government and sentenced him and others to die.[15]	Haiti	Port-au-Prince	Brazil	1967 (1967)	1967 (1967)[16]		18 colleagues of Veillard were executed, but he received asylum in the Brazilian Embassy and fled to Florida[15]
José Serra	Brazilian politician; at the time, militant against the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964–1985)	escaping persecution from the Brazilian military government	Chile	Santiago	Italy	1973	1973	8 months	Was granted safe conduct to leave into exile
Around 800 foreigners and 600 Cambodians, including Dith Pran, Sydney Schanberg, Prince Sisowath Sirik Matak, Princess Mam Manivan Phanivong, and the Cambodian ministers for health and finance.		The French Embassy in Phnom Penh provided temporary refuge following the fall of Phnom Penh.	Cambodia	Phnom Penh	France	April 17, 1975 (1975-04-17)	April 30, 1975 (1975-04-30)	13 days	Most Cambodians were expelled from the embassy, and many were subsequently executed by the Khmer Rouge. Foreigners and their Cambodian wives were allowed to travel overland to Thailand.
Elena Quinteros	Uruguayan school teacher, detained during the civic-military dictatorship of Uruguay on June 26, 1976 and taken to the torture centre 300 Carlos	Escaped detention	Uruguay	Montevideo	Venezuela	June 28, 1976 (1976-06-28)	June 28, 1976 (1976-06-28)		The embassy's personnel attempted to help Quinteros, but she was forcibly taken by Uruguayan policemen and soldiers, and days afterwards she was tortured and killed. The incident prompted Venezuela to break diplomatic relations with Uruguay.
Donald Woods	South African anti-apartheid journalist	Persecution by apartheid government	Lesotho	Maseru	United Kingdom	January 1978 (1978-01)	January 1978 (1978-01)		Fled to London, with the help of the British High Commissioner and government of Lesotho, where he was granted political asylum
The Siberian Seven	Siberian Pentecostals	prevented from emigrating[17]	Soviet Union	Moscow	United States	June 27, 1978 (1978-06-27)	June 27, 1983 (1983-06-27)	5 years (last of them)	Allowed to emigrate to Israel and later the U.S.
Cuban diplomats and civilians	Escaped gunfire at the Cuban Embassy	Persecution after the Chilean military coup	Chile	Santiago de Chile	Sweden	September 11, 1978 (1978-09-11)	1978		Safely brought out of Chile. Cuban embassy under Swedish protecting power for 18 years. Ambassador Harald Edelstam later declared persona non grata.
Havana Peruvian embassy crisis	Over 10,000 Cuban citizens	diplomatic protection	Cuba	Havana	Peru	April 4, 1980 (1980-04-04)	1980		Peru granted diplomatic protection to the Cuban citizens. The incident led to the Mariel boatlift.[18]
Ange-Félix Patassé	Central African opposition leader	opposing Andre Kolingba government	Central African Republic	Bangui	France	February 27, 1982 (1982-02-27)	March 3, 1982 (1982-03-03)	4 days	Negotiated exile to Togo
Francisco René Bobadilla Palomo	Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Food under President Fernando Romeo Lucas García	deposed by a military junta headed by Efraín Ríos Montt	Guatemala	Guatemala City	Brazil	1982 (1982)	1982 (1982)		Governing junta granted all asylum-seekers safe passage to leave the country
Olivia Forsyth	South African apartheid era ex-spy agent[19]	defection to ANC	Angola	Luanda	United Kingdom	May 2, 1988 (1988-05-02)	November 16, 1988 (1988-11-16)	198 days	Negotiated flight to the United Kingdom
Fang Lizhi and his wife	dissident in Tiananmen Square protests of 1989	suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989	China	Beijing	United States	June 5, 1989 (1989-06-05)	June 25, 1990 (1990-06-25)	385 days	Negotiated flight to the United States
Hou Dejian	dissident in Tiananmen Square protests of 1989	suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989	China	Beijing	Australia	June 1989 (1989-06)	August 16, 1989 (1989-08-16)	72 days[20]	Negotiated exit and deported back to native Taiwan
Manuel Noriega	Military dictator of Panama	United States invasion of Panama	Panama	Ciudad de Panama	Holy See	December 24, 1989 (1989-12-24)	January 3, 1990 (1990-01-03)	10 days	Negotiated arrest by United States forces
Michel Aoun	Lebanese Army commander	defeated in Lebanese Civil War	Lebanon	Beirut	France	October 1990 (1990-10)	August 27, 1991 (1991-08-27)	10 months	Left to exile in France
Hailu Yimenu	Ethiopian Derg-era acting prime minister	Fall of the Derg-regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam	Ethiopia	Addis Ababa	Italy	May 27, 1991 (1991-05-27)[21]	1993	2 years	Committed suicide[21]
Tesfaye Gebre Kidan	Ethiopian Derg-era acting president						June 4, 2004 (2004-06-04)[22]	13 years, 1 week, 1 day	Died after an incident at the embassy[23]
Berhanu Bayeh	Ethiopian Derg-era senior official						December 30, 2020 (2020-12-30)[24]	29 years, 7 months, 3 days	Sentenced to death in absentia in 2008.[25] Remained in the embassy until granted parole in December 2020.[24]
Addis Tedla
Erich Honecker	General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany	Indicted in Germany for the deaths of 192 East Germans who tried to leave the GDR in violation of anti-Republikflucht laws.	Russia	Moscow	Chile	December 24, 1991 (1991-12-24)	March 1, 1992 (1992-03-01)	68 days	Extradited by the Yeltsin administration back to Germany
Mohammad Najibullah	President of Afghanistan	Afghan Civil War	Afghanistan	Kabul	United Nations	April 16, 1992 (1992-04-16)	September 27, 1996 (1996-09-27)	4 years, 5 months, 11 days	Tortured and killed by the Taliban
Sylvestre Ntibantunganya	President of Burundi	military coup d'état	Burundi	Bujumbura	United States	July 23, 1996 (1996-07-23)	June 1997 (1997-06)	11 months	Negotiated exit
Abdullah Öcalan	founding member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party	Turkish manhunt	Kenya	Nairobi	Greece	January 1999 (1999-01)	February 15, 1999 (1999-02-15)	1 month	Arrested on the way to the airport and tried and imprisoned in Turkey.
João Bernardo Vieira	President of Guinea-Bissau	Guinea-Bissau Civil War	Guinea-Bissau	Bissau	Portugal	May 1999 (1999-05)	June 1999 (1999-06)	1 month	Negotiated exile in Portugal
Henri Konan Bédié	President of Côte d'Ivoire	1999 Ivorian coup d'état	Côte d'Ivoire	Abidjan	France	December 24, 1999 (1999-12-24)[26][27]	December 25, 1999 (1999-12-25)[26][27]	1 day	Briefly took refuge at a French miltary base, then fled to Togo[28][29]
Alassane Ouattara	Presidential candidate in Côte d'Ivoire	First Ivorian Civil War	Côte d'Ivoire	Abidjan	France	September 19, 2002 (2002-09-19)[30]	November 27, 2002 (2002-11-27)[31]	69 days	Negotiated exile in Gabon and France
Henri Konan Bédié	Former president of Côte d'Ivoire				Canada	September 2002 (2002-09)[32]	unknown		unknown
44 North Koreans refugees, including children and two former political prisoners	Refugees fleeing political repression in North Korea and fearing Chinese collaboration	Political crackdown and impoverishment in North Korea	China	Beijing	Canada	September 29, 2004 (2004-09-29)	December 22, 2004 (2004-12-22)	2 months, 3 weeks, 2 days	Negotiated transfer with China. First group of 15 people believed to be taken to South Korea, the remaining 29 were sent to an undisclosed, safe third country (likely South Korea).[33]
Lucio Gutiérrez	Deposed President of Ecuador	Tried to interfere in the country's Supreme Court amid a growing political crisis and protests; was declared impeached by Congress and replaced by the Vice-President	Ecuador	Quito	Brazil	April 15, 2005 (2005-04-15)	April 24, 2005 (2005-04-24)	9 days	Negotiated exile in Brazil, then went to Peru, then to the United States; returned to Ecuador and disputed the Ecuadorian general election, 2009
Morgan Tsvangirai	Candidate for President of Zimbabwe	violence during Zimbabwean presidential election, 2008	Zimbabwe	Harare	Netherlands	June 22, 2008 (2008-06-22)	June 25, 2008 (2008-06-25)[34]	3 days	After negotiations with opponent Robert Mugabe, accepted joining a coalition government and was sworn-in as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe
Anwar Ibrahim	De facto Leader of the Opposition Malaysia	Death threats and alleged sodomy charge	Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur	Turkey	June 29, 2008 (2008-06-29)	June 30, 2008 (2008-06-30)	1 day	Left after assurance of his safety by Malaysian police. Was arrested on 16 July, and released without charges on 17 July. Won the August elections and returned to Parliament as formal leader of the Malaysian opposition.
Andry Rajoelina	Deposed mayor of Antananarivo, unilaterally self-proclaimed as president of the Republic of Madagascar on January 31, 2009.	Arrest warrant during the 2009 Malagasy political crisis	Madagascar	Antananarivo	France	March 6, 2009 (2009-03-06)	March 16, 2009 (2009-03-16)	10 days	Was appointed as president of the caretaker government by Hippolyte Rarison Ramaroson after Marc Ravalomanana resigned and fled the country
Alberto Pizango	Peruvian indigenous leader	Commanded protests against the Peruvian government by indigenous Amazonians who seized control of a natural gas field and a petroleum pipeline	Peru	Lima	Nicaragua	June 8, 2009 (2009-06-08)[35]	June 17, 2009 (2009-06-17)[36]	9 days	Granted asylum and flown to Nicaragua
Manuel Zelaya[37]	Ousted President of Honduras	wanted by authorities for putative crimes against the National Constitution	Honduras	Tegucigalpa	Brazil	September 21, 2009 (2009-09-21)	January 28, 2010 (2010-01-28)	129 days	Negotiated exile in Dominican Republic
Wang Lijun	Former police chief of Chongqing	Conflict with Bo Xilai (Wang Lijun incident)	China	Chengdu	United States	February 6, 2012 (2012-02-06)	February 7, 2012 (2012-02-07)	1 day	"Left of his own volition" and taken by central government authorities
Amadou Toumani Touré	Malian deposed president	military coup d'état	Mali	Bamako	Senegal	April 18, 2012 (2012-04-18)	August 2012 (2012-08)	4 months	fled to Senegal
Chen Guangcheng	blind civil rights activist	escape from house arrest	China	Beijing	United States	April 26, 2012 (2012-04-26) [citation needed]	May 2, 2012 (2012-05-02)	6 days	Left to go to hospital under unclear circumstances. Was later able to go to the U.S with his family.
Roger Pinto	Bolivian Senator; leader of the opposition	Political persecution by Government of President Evo Morales	Bolivia	La Paz	Brazil	May 28, 2012 (2012-05-28)	August 23, 2013 (2013-08-23)	455 days	Left the embassy in a diplomatic car accompanied by the Brazilian Chargé d'affaires; they drove for 22 hours until arriving in Brazil[38]
Julian Assange	Australian political activist, editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks	To avoid extradition for questioning about alleged rape and sexual abuse in Sweden and to the United States on a now unsealed Grand Jury indictment	United Kingdom	London	Ecuador	June 19, 2012 (2012-06-19)	April 11, 2019 (2019-04-11)	6 years, 9 months, 23 days	Asylum revoked by Ecuador, arrested by Metropolitan Police[39]
Mohamed Nasheed	Former President of the Maldives, who resigned in 2012 claiming to have suffered a coup d'état	Fearing for his life at the hands of the police after ex-Human Rights Minister and a Brigadier General revealed information about assassination plot after Court order issued for police to arrest him[40][41][42]	Maldives	Malé	India	February 13, 2013 (2013-02-13)	February 23, 2013 (2013-02-23)	10 days	Left the Indian High Commission after deal brokered by India[43]
Bosco Ntaganda	Former commander in the March 23 Movement	Infighting within the March 23 Movement and possibly vulnerable to Rwandan government[44]	Rwanda	Kigali	United States	March 18, 2013 (2013-03-18)	March 22, 2013 (2013-03-22)	4 days	Turned over to the International Criminal Court
100 Burundians	Students	Aggression from the Government of Burundi[45]	Burundi	Bujumbura	United States	June 25, 2015 (2015-06-25)	June 25, 2015 (2015-06-25)[46]		Left peacefully at request,[47] relocated to a center run by a religious entity
Ri Ji-u, Kim Uk-il, and Hyon Kwang-song	Suspects in assassination of Kim Jong-nam	Investigation into the assassination of Kim Jong-nam[48]	Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur	North Korea	February 2017 (2017-02)	March 30, 2017 (2017-03-30)	45 days	Cleared of wrongdoing by Malaysian police and allowed to return to North Korea
José Fernando Núñez	Justices of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice of Venezuela in exile	Political persecution by the government of Venezuela after their appointment by the National Assembly	Venezuela	Caracas	Chile	July 29, 2017 (2017-07-29)	October 19, 2017 (2017-10-19)	83 days	Left Venezuela in car to Chile[49]
Luis Manuel Marcano [es]
Ramón Linares
Elenis del Valle Rodríguez Martínez [es]
Zuleima Gonzales
Beatriz Ruiz
Freddy Guevara	Vice-president of the National Assembly of Venezuela and National Coordinator of Popular Will party	Political persecution by the government of Venezuela for leading protests against the regime[50][51]	Venezuela	Caracas	Chile	November 4, 2017 (2017-11-04)	September 9, 2020 (2020-09-09)	2 years, 10 months, and 5 days	Left the embassy after being pardoned by Nicolás Maduro.[52] Was afterwards arrested in 2021
Leopoldo López	Opposition leader, founder of Popular Will and Sakharov Prize recipient	Freed from house arrest during the 2019 Venezuelan uprising[53]	Venezuela	Caracas	Spain	April 30, 2019 (2019-04-30)	October 25, 2020 (2020-10-25)	1 year, 5 months, 3 weeks, 4 days	Fled to Madrid, Spain[54]
Mariela Magallanes [es]	Deputies of the National Assembly of Venezuela	Political persecution by the Venezuelan government after the 2019 Venezuelan uprising	Venezuela	Caracas	Italy	May 8, 2019 (2019-05-08)[55][56]	November 30, 2019 (2019-11-30)	6 months, 3 weeks and 1 day	Fled to Italy[57]
Américo de Grazia [es]
Richard Blanco					Argentina	May 9, 2019 (2019-05-09)[58]	June 17, 2019 (2019-06-17)	39 days	Fled to Colombia[59]
Franco Casella					Mexico	May 14, 2019 (2019-05-14)[60]	September 20, 2019 (2019-09-20)[61]	4 months, 6 days	Fled to Spain[62]
Félix César Navarro [es]	Evo Morales ministers	2019 Bolivian political crisis	Bolivia	La Paz	Mexico	December 23, 2019 (2019-12-23)[63][64]	February 1, 2020 (2020-02-01)[65]	40 days	Fled to Mexico via Peru[65]
Pedro Damián Dorado
Héctor Enrique Arce							November 3, 2020 (2020-11-03)[66]	10 months, 1 week, and 4 days	Left embassy after the 2020 Bolivian general election[66][67]
José Hugo Moldiz [es]
Eduardo Zavaleta							November 4, 2020 (2020-11-04)[66]	10 months, 1 week, and 5 days
Wilma Alanoca							November 5, 2020 (2020-11-05)[66]	10 months, 1 week, and 6 days
Juan Ramón Quintana [es]							November 8, 2020 (2020-11-08)[68]	10 months, 2 weeks, and 2 days
Nicolás Laguna							November 2020 (2020-11)[69]	10 months, 2 weeks, and 4 days
Víctor Hugo Vásquez
Simeon Boikov	Pro-Russian influencer[70]	Prosecution and conviction in absentia for assault[71]	Australia	Sydney	Russia	December 15, 2022 (2022-12-15)[72]	Ongoing	2 years and 8 months	Ongoing
Jorge Glas	Former vice-president of Ecuador	Alleged political persecution in Ecuador after being convicted twice for corruption.[73]	Ecuador	Quito	Mexico	December 18, 2023 (2023-12-18)[74][75]	April 5, 2024 (2024-04-05)[74][75]	3 months, 2 weeks and 4 days	Arrested by the Ecuadorian police from inside the Mexico's embassy (in breach of international law). Mexico broke relations with and sued Ecuador at the International Court of Justice.[74]
Ricardo Martinelli	Former president of Panama	Conviction for money laundering[76][77][78]	Panama	Panama City	Nicaragua	February 7, 2024 (2024-02-07)	Ongoing	1 year, 6 months, 1 week and 1 day	Ongoing
Fernando Martínez Mottola	Venezuelan opposition figures	Political persecution by the Venezuelan government following the ban of opposition candidate María Corina Machado in the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election	Venezuela	Caracas	Argentina	March 25, 2024 (2024-03-25)[79][80][81]	December 19, 2024 (2024-12-19)	8 months, 3 weeks and 3 days	Left the embassy and surrendered to Venezuelan authorities[82]
Magalli Meda, Claudia Macero [es], Humberto Villalobos, Pedro Urruchurtu [es], and Omar González							May 6, 2025 (2025-05-06)[83]	1 year, 1 month, 11 days	Fled to the United States, aided by the United States government[84]
Nadine Heredia	Former First Lady of Peru and president of the Peruvian Nationalist Party	Sought for money laundering with a 15-year sentence	Peru	Lima	Brazil	April 15, 2025 (2025-04-15)[85]	April 16, 2025 (2025-04-16)[86]	1 day	Granted safe passage to Brazil by the Peruvian government

See also

• List of people granted asylum