I abhor this concept of "Passport Confiscation". In middle east countries, this practice is very much prevalent. They hire poor people from Asia to construct roads, Fifa stadium, etc. Also, the first thing these bloodsuckers do is confiscate their passport. How is this different than slavery in China? Shouldn't we sanction such a toxic place?
Of course human traffickers don't care about the legality of the practice, but there's a difference between something being widespread among criminals and something being culturally (or legally) acceptable without having to buy off police or customs.
Pray give us some examples. Curious to know if this happens in Canada and USA.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/suit-fairfax-police-offi...
Notably, what is happening to Russia externally is different, because they first started a war by attacking Ukraine.
Because the governments have taken away or undermined all ability for people to organize. When you have to fear every single friend of you being a potential informant of the Secret Service, how will you find someone willing to do anything that goes against the government? Rule by fear is incredibly effective, it was what held together the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, the GDR and modern Russia and China.
> Why would it be the business of other nations to intervene in the internal affairs of another?
Because we as humanity should have learned something from what my ancestors did in 1933-1945 - namely, to not stand aside in the face of obvious inhumanity.
Because in general, from my experiencing interacting with Chinese nationals, the Chinese people either don't believe or don't care that their fellow countrymen are undergoing a systematic genocide.
For the first the authorities in most western countries try to uncover it with raids on construction sites etc. The household situation is tough, as it is harder to see.
"Jail time + huge fines for anyone other than law enforcement with a legal order or warrant denying access any document a person requires for travel."
There are also some nasty privacy and autonomy implications to digitizing the passport system.
This is not primarily a technical problem, but that doesn't mean it's not a very hard problem. Tech people tend to assume that every non-technical problem is easy. Often people, legal, ethical, and institutional problems are quite a bit harder than just making shit work at the tech level, and it is not just because people are lazy or inept. It's because there are loads of competing concerns and stakeholders.
A UK passport is the property of the UK government; as far as I'm aware, it's forbidden for a UK passport holder to voluntarily surrender it to a third party.