Is it just me, or are there no independent havens in 1.0? I haven’t gone that far in the game, but none have appeared yet
I found 2 so far. In my first playthrough I didnt find any.
Can you get recruits from them? I mean, if you find one with a training center or are they just there as decoration?
I think one is fixed in Japan (empress). Second (miners) I’ve found in Australia, but I’m not sure if it always spawns there.
I found 3 I think. Two in South America. All seem to have come with special events.
Found one, and it had some pretty interesting implications. Ended up just backing away from their proposition as it would’ve mucked up my prestige with my go to ally.
Found One in Japan : Towa with a nice mission to take there from the new ruler of Japan. ^^
and other one in Russia ? Ukraine ? somewhere above (North of) India 
name’s Longinus Point , an independant ruler who left Tobias !
I found one in east Europe and they offered a mission called The Alchemist (which was hard as a nut). After I managed to crack it got other mission (Magnum Opus) which I haven’t had time to do.
All those haven defenses… current one has a scylla, 2 chirons, 2 sirens and bunch of armored craps as tanks! I dunno how I can manage that 
Looks like Independent are limited to minimum to avoid something. Maybe there are still not prepared research projects to reverse engineer their weapons? So there is minimum possibility that you will find those Independent weapons. 