Amid a growing number of expulsions of Belarusians from Lithuania, the parliament may soon again consider imposing the same visa and residence permit bans for Belarusians as it did for Russian nationals.
"I see the large flow of people coming from Belarus, but [...] it seems to me that the Migration Department is doing a good job with the tasks assigned to them," said MP Andrius Mazuronis, member of the opposition Labour Party and part of the Seimas Security and Defence Committee.
Some 10,000 Belarusians entered Lithuania this year alone, while thousands more fled following repressions in the wake of the 2020 presidential election. There are now over 50,000 Belarusians staying in Lithuania.
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"If the flow of people were to increase some more, I might [consider] strengthening the Migration Department by giving them some additional powers, some financial resources," the politician added.
Following amendments passed in April, newly-arriving Russian nationals will be barred from owning property or gaining residency permits, unless mediated by officials, which does not apply to Belarusians. Visas, meanwhile, remain inaccessible for both Belarusian and Russian nationals without the involvement of Lithuania’s institutions.
In July, Lithuania’s Migration Department said 910 Belarusian citizens have been recognised as a threat to the national security of Lithuania. They have been refused visas or residence permits or had their existing documents revoked and banned from the country. This followed a questionnaire introduced in November 2022 as part of an application process for Russian and Belarusian nationals, which requires them to provide background information and express their views on Russia's aggression in Ukraine.
According to Mazuronis, it would be unfair to equate the entry restrictions for Belarusian and Russian citizens to Lithuania. It would also damage Lithuania’s economy.
"If we restrict the entry of these people into the country, first of all, it would be a huge shock to our economy, because a significant part of the workforce coming to Lithuania today is from Belarus," he said.
Many Belarusians now work in the country’s logistics and IT sectors.
In addition, tightening restrictions on Belarusian citizens would hurt the country's remaining pro-democracy activists, who fight back against Alexander Lukashenko, Mazuronis added.
"We have seen people taking to the streets, we have seen people expressing their dissatisfaction with what is happening in Belarus, we have seen how the resistance of those people has been suppressed by force,” said Mazufonis. “By doing so, we would be pushing those people into a kind of prison, a kind of closed space, where they would simply not be able to find a way of expressing that civic position.”
“It seems to me that the only one who would benefit from our behaviour is the current Belarusian regime,” he added.
Wagner in Belarus
However, MP Laurynas Kasčiūnas, member of the ruling Conservative party and head of the NSGK, said the arrival of the Wagner mercenaries in Belarus has changed Lithuania’s outlook.
"The presence of Wagner, which we have labelled as a terrorist organization, changes the situation, and it seems to me that the decision is maturing in the parliament, and the decisions will be taken on September 10," Kasčiūnas told reporters.
Meanwhile, political prisoners will continue to benefit from the so-called humanitarian corridor by being allowed into the country.
"There will continue to be a humanitarian corridor for democrats, the opposition, dissidents, people fighting for freedom. Even for citizens of Russia, such a corridor exists today,” Kasčiūnas told LRT RADIO earlier on Wednesday.
“The Foreign Ministry assesses whether a person is really a dissident, a human rights defender, and then there is a mechanism to give him or her the opportunity to live in Lithuania. This person would not disappear anywhere," the MP said.
According to Kasčiūnas, in the three years since the fraudulent presidential elections in Belarus, many of those who had to flee have already left.
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“All the real opposition, the part of society that has transformative power, revolutionary power, has either been pushed out of Belarus, or it has been put in prisons, terrorised and repressed,” claimed Kasčiūnas.
Saulius Skvernelis, the former prime minister and leader of the opposition Democratic Union "For Lithuania", said Wagner's arrival in Belarus had "opened a window of discussion" about tougher sanctions on Belarusian citizens, but added that the decision could not be taken "automatically".
Meanwhile, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said the country’s support for Belarusian opposition will not waver.
"Today [Wednesday] marks three years since the fraudulent presidential elections in Belarus, which were followed by oppression and violence by the Lukashenko regime. Lithuania believes in a democratic and free Belarus," Nausėda posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday.
Franak Viačorka, the chief political adviser to an opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, told LRT RADIO said the “fight in Belarus continues”, adding that partisans are active in fighting against Russia’s continuing takeover of the country as well as against the invasion of Ukraine.
He added that he met with Tikhanovskaya and Nausėda on Wednesday, where they agreed that “our objective is to find out” who the pro-regime “agents and provocateurs” are and send them out, said Viačorka
“Most people who come to Lithuania support democracy and freedom”, but laws imposing sanctions on all Belarusians could impact those who do not support Lukashenko, he added.
According to Viačorka, Lithuania could gather more details on people who are connected to the regime and impose personal sanctions.
Edited by Benas Gerdžiūnas.
