2024-11-21 07:05:00
An employee of the BySol evacuation service, who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons, told Svaboda that in his opinion, Belarusians who are persecuted in Belarus and have been denied entry to EU countries can enter EU countries relatively safely. .
The mediator considers only the first two items on the list to be more or less safe. According to the mediator, the proposals of the following countries have some reservations. The expert draws attention to the fact that in all cases it is better to consult lawyers or consultants in this field and solve the case on their own.
1. Stay in the European Union until the last day
His first advice is to try to stay in the European Union. One of the options is to try to leave the country where the stay was refused (for example, from Lithuania) to a third country (for example to Turkey), and from there to fly to another EU country (for example, to Germany. ) and seek asylum there.
According to the Dublin Regulation, the EU country where the asylum seeker entered for the first time considers the asylum application, explains the mediator. If you leave the European Union and re-enter it, the procedure is “reset” and the asylum application will most likely already be considered in the new EU country.
If a person has been denied protection status or additional asylum, but during the review or immediately after he has rejected new facts of persecution, he can apply for protection again, the mediator explains.
“The European Union is big. Each country of the European Union has its own protocols and policies regarding migrants and Belarus in particular. Not many countries are mentioned as a separate group of Belarusians: usually Poland, Lithuania, sometimes Germany. In other countries, Belarusians are the same migrants as everyone else. Their asylum applications are processed in the general procedure,” says a representative of the BySol evacuation service.
The expert calls the “travel document” or “foreigner’s passport” issued by some EU countries an important reason to stay in the European Union. This solves the problem with expired Belarusian passports, as it is now impossible to exchange them abroad. He recommends using the pashpart.org service to check the possibility of obtaining a “foreigner’s passport” in a certain country.
The mediator says that all legal means should be used to stay in the EU, for example, to contest the decision of the migration service or the court’s decision to stay in an EU country.
“If a person believes that he has the right to asylum, that he is not a threat to the country, he should definitely use legal means to prove his point… I advise you not to give up at the first refusal,” a says the expert.
At the same time, it does not recommend violating EC legislation. If Lithuania refused a residence permit and gave time to leave the territory of the European Union, one should not drive to Germany, “because there are still no checks at the border” and hide there, the mediator adds with him.
2. USA, Canada, Australia, Great Britain
If it is not possible to stay in the European Union, the BySol evacuation service employee recommends trying to come to the USA, Canada, Australia or Great Britain. He calls them “countries where it will be easier for Belarusians to get political asylum.”
The intermediary recommends trying to get visas for these countries. He notes that it is very difficult to get to Australia, like Great Britain. However, there is a Belarusian diaspora, there are legal Belarusians.
“I won’t say that everyone who applies for visas to the USA and Canada gets them… But there are many people around me who manage to do it. They go to these countries, ask for asylum and stay there to live fully officially,” says the mediator.
At the same time, he does not advise to go to the United States of America by the popular route through Mexico, because this is a semi-legal route, and it is also dangerous.
3. Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Moldova
Belarusians from these countries have not been extradited to the Belarusian authorities yet, notes the representative of the evacuation service. However, the mediator adds that the Turkish leadership has contacts with the regimes of Putin and Lukashenka.
“We cannot guarantee that Turkey is a very safe country,” he concludes.
Similar situation with Georgia, says the mediator. Recently, he got the image of a less and less safe country for Belarusians, more and more Belarusians are not allowed to enter Georgia. However, there was no case of extradition of a fugitive to the Belarusian authorities there either.
In Armenia, Belarusians are periodically detained when “red flags” are shown in the border guards’ database. They are usually released after a few days. Cases of extradition to Belarus are unknown.
“Sometimes people come to us through Armenia, but we are not advised to stay there,” says the expert.
If a person has a biography like Vasyl Verameychyk, a former resident of Kolinov, the mediator advises not to fly to Armenia at all.
On the other hand, Moldova strives to achieve Europeanization. Yes, according to him, they will find out if the situation is political. There are no known cases of extradition of Belarus from there. However, Moldova and Armenia did not cancel the agreement on the international search of the CIS countries.
The expert adds that Belarusians should declare loudly, but without hysterics, at the border that their lives and health are in danger in Belarus, that they are political refugees.
Polish-Belarusian border, illustrative photo
4. Asian countries
According to the mediator, many countries in Asia can be considered safe enough for the majority of Belarusian political emigrants.
“Why not (go)? Looking at what kind of search. If Interpol is involved, there is a risk that not every country in Asia will understand whether your situation is political or not. There is a request and they can be issued on that request. Always look at the situation. Often, the person himself will know better than any lawyer how serious his case is, how seriously they might be interested,” suggests the mediator.
In his opinion, Thailand, where the music group “B-2” was kept and from where they wanted to be deported to Russia, is still a safe enough country for many Belarusians, for example, with Article 342 of the Criminal Code (“Organization and preparation of activities that seriously violate public order, or active participation in them).
5. Latin American countries
The employee of the BySol service notes that their team does not have practice translating Belarusian to Latin American countries. However, he knows that Belarusians live in several countries (Argentina, Venezuela).
6. Balkan countries
According to the expert, many Balkan countries are quite safe for Belarus. According to him, these are Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzeg
He thinks it is better not to go to Kosovo, North Macedonia, Serbia, where Andrei Gnyot was detained and trying to deport him.
7. India, United Arab Emirates
It is worth looking at the countries with which Belarus has signed an agreement on the cooperation of special services, says the representative of the evacuation service BySol. It is known for sure that it is India, UAE, Georgia. Other countries should be checked. However, despite the cooperation agreement, Georgia has not yet handed over Belarus to the authorities in Minsk.
A BySol tow truck employee points out that a person may have additional risk factors that make them more cautious than many others. This is the interest in the person on the part of the KGB, participation in the war on the part of Ukraine, being in the base of Interpol.
“We are looking at the personal interest of KGB employees in a person. If there were persistent questions, then the person fled to the EU countries, after that they continue to look for him, go to his relatives, they are interested in his fate, then it is better to sit and not come forward. If there is no interest, if the case is being considered by a local investigator, if it is suspected that he put the case on the shelf, then the world is more open to such a person,” says the mediator.
You can not fly to the CIS, China
Former leader of the ByHelp initiative Aleksei Levonchykwhich helps repress Belarus, Svaboda told where Belarus would be relatively safe. According to him, the safest place is the EU and NATO countries (with the exception of Turkey). If one is in the background of Interpol, the mediator did not recommend going over these links.
In addition, according to Levonchyk, Turkey, Armenia, Moldova, and Georgia are relatively safe. Belarus was not extradited from there. However, he does not advise to go to Armenia, advises to be careful with Turkey, warns that Moldova has a common search base with Belarus.
Moldova is supposed to participate in the search of the CIS common database. But this database is run in Cyrillic, which is not used in Moldova, so it does not participate in the CIS search database, explains the mediator.
Leonchyk told about the countries that are popular for vacation. He noted that Egypt had not yet extradited Belarusians to Belarus, unless the person wanted. However, he still does not advise going there.
“Thailand, if you have a specific request, will do the same with you as it did with B-2,” he said.
According to the head of the ByHelp fund, you can not fly to the CIS countries, China.