VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Belarusian emigrants in Lithuania who had been stripped of the best to get new passports by Minsk, will be capable of obtain particular Lithuanian journey paperwork, authorities within the southernmost Baltic state stated Monday.
Such passports can be issued to Belarusian residents who’ve the best to reside in Lithuania however should not have a passport or a corresponding journey doc, the Interior Ministry stated.
It will enable them to go away and enter Lithuania, which shares a 679-kilometer (422-mile) border with Belarus.
“A foreigner’s passport is valid for more than one year but perhaps that term could be longer if the parliament would extend it,” deputy Interior Minister Arnoldas Abramavicius stated.
Last week, Minsk introduced that its diplomatic missions would not difficulty passports to residents completely residing overseas in a transfer thought of a blow to the Belarusian emigrant communities in Europe. The ban may pressure those that fled the nation amid rising repression to return to keep up their journey paperwork.
An estimated 200-300,000 Belarusians have left the nation within the final three years since large protests in opposition to an election that returned President Alexander Lukashenko to workplace led to a harsh crackdown on the opposition.
According to official Lithuanian figures, greater than 58,000 Belarusian residents are at the moment residing in Lithuania, together with members of the opposition to Lukashenko, an ally of Russia.
Among them is Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, a number one determine who fled to Lithuania after Lukashenko claimed victory in disputed 2020 vote. She earlier warned Belarusians, saying that “even if your passport expires, you should not return to your home country if you risk persecution.”
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