As politicians in Lithuania call for more restrictions on Belarusians, the latter say this makes it difficult for them to run businesses that relocated after the 2020 repressions. They are asking for clearer rules and for Vilnius to continue its previously declared open-door policy.
Several hundred Belarusian companies have relocated to Lithuania since the 2020 repressions unleashed by the presidential election in Belarus.
“They have contributed substantially to the Lithuanian economy by creating new jobs and paying taxes,” according to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, a Belarusian opposition leader residing in Vilnius.
“And I hope that Lithuania will continue to accept and support all these Belarusian businesses,” she told a Belarusian business forum via videolink on Tuesday.
While Lithuania initially welcomed Belarusian opposition activists and businesses, the mood has changed significantly. Now, some Lithuanian politicians, including President Gitanas Nausėda, believe that Belarusian citizens should be subjected to tighter entry restrictions, putting them on par with the sanctions imposed on Russians last year.
Sierzh Naurodski, a vice-president of the Belarusian Association of Business Abroad (ABBA), which organised the forum in Vilnius, says putting restrictions on Belarusians would “almost” stop Belarusian citizens and companies from relocating to Lithuania.
“I say ‘almost’ because there definitely would be logistics companies, construction companies, some other services that would be operating here. [...] I’m not saying it would stop 100-percent, but it would tremendously influence and that would be much more difficult.”
“Now imagine [...] you are issuing visas to truck drivers, you would be checking, double checking every single driver like 100 times because you don’t want a truck driver to be pro-Putin. [...] But again, if you increase your intensity of checking these people, and if you are a company, you would definitely be super worried about bringing in employees as it would be much more difficult,” he said.
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According to Naurodski, another point of concern is Lithuanian institutions considering stricter requirements for foreigners coming to work in Lithuania or setting quotas for their employment.
He believes that the majority of Belarusians do not support the ruling regimes in Belarus and Russia or Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In early March, Lithuania’s Interior Ministry proposed tightening requirements for foreigners coming to work in Lithuania and businesses that invite them. Among the proposals is a new formula to calculate the quota for foreigners coming to Lithuania on the basis of employment.
Naurodski says there are currently 833 companies registered in Lithuania whose shareholders or final beneficiaries are Belarusian citizens. Around 40 percent of them were registered after 2020.
It is currently easier for Belarusians to obtain a residence permit in Poland than in Lithuania, as the latter has specific requirements in place, he said.
According to the Migration Department, almost 63,000 Belarusian citizens live in Lithuania at the moment.
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