Belarusians in Lithuania are not getting residence permits – Tsikhanouskaya
Around 2,000 Belarusians in Lithuania have not had their temporary residence permits renewed, which is causing great concern for the Belarusian expat community, Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya says.
She and other Belarusian opposition representatives have called on Lithuanian politicians not to introduce new restrictions and not to build an “iron curtain” between the two countries.
“The issuance of temporary residence permits in Lithuania has been suspended for about 2,000 Belarusians. Of course, this is a matter of great concern for us as we do not know each individual case, but most of these people cannot return to Belarus because they will be persecuted or imprisoned there,” Tsikhanouskaya told reporters at the parliament, Seimas, after a meeting with Lithuanian politicians.
“Moreover, we don’t know the reasons for the suspension. Even in my office, where we really have people who are at risk of being targeted by the regime, most of them have had questions about the extension of their permits," she said.
Based in Vilnius since the 2020 presidential election in Belarus, Tsikhanouskaya on Thursday asked Lithuanian politicians not to impose new restrictions on Belarusian citizens in Lithuania, and instead focus on supporters of the regime of Alexander Lukashenko.
“We understand the security concern and we are ready to help to identify agents and proponents of the regime. You have to close the loopholes in the European sanctions and stop the funding of the regime’s repressions and the war in Ukraine,” the Belarusian opposition leader said.
She also proposed stopping political discussions on “Litvinism” – a fringe ideology maintaining that modern-day Belarus has claims to the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania – because it does not have wide support in the Belarusian society.
“Let’s leave the topic to historians and let’s make it clear that Lithuanian territory, Lithuanian history belongs to Lithuanian people, period,” she said.