Lithuania’s Migration Department is planning to check more than 18,000 Belarusians who arrived in Lithuania before the restrictions introduced in 2022. They will have to fill in the same questionnaire as the newly arriving Belarusians.
“We will start checking all Belarusian citizens who received residence permits on the basis of employment before the additional questionnaire was introduced,” Evelina Gudzinskaitė, head of the Migration Department, told the ELTA news agency.
According to her, there are around 18,000 such Belarusians in Lithuania, whose residence permits are still valid.
If negative information was discovered about a person, the Migration Department would turn to the State Security Department (VSD).
“If a person does not answer the questionnaire, it will be interpreted against him. If the person answers, one’s answers will be assessed. If negative information is found, we will consult the VSD. If it concludes that the person is a threat to state security, the residence permit will be revoked,” Gudzinskaitė explained.
Since November 2022, Russians and Belarusians entering Lithuania have been required to fill in a special questionnaire to express their views on Russia’s war in Ukraine. Since then, 1,644 Belarusian and 397 Russian citizens have been found as posing a threat to Lithuania’s national security and denied residence permits.
The Migration Department and the VSD are tasked with carrying out more thorough checks on Belarusian nationals who have obtained or are applying for a temporary residence permit in Lithuania on the basis of employment. More stringent checks come after Alexander Matiyevich, a former Belarusian police major who took part in the crackdown on pro-democracy protests in his country, obtained a temporary residence permit in Lithuania.
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