November 03, 2022

Fearful of war and oppression, Belarusians flee abroad

topic:	Migration
located:	Belarus
editor:	Katarina Panić

Hundreds of thousands of Belarusians have left their country in the past two years, mainly due to the oppression following the protests that erupted in 2020 against the government’s anti-pandemic measures and then against the fraudulent presidential election. This year, the repression intensified towards those who did not support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Faced with two options, either self-censorship or prison, many Belarusians have preventively chosen the third one, a road of exile, sometimes as a precaution against a perceived threat,” said Anaïs Marin, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation of Belarus, in an online press conference last Thursday.

The targeted groups are the renewed political opposition, journalists, cultural workers, human rights activists and other independent professionals.

“When all your friends or colleagues or members of the same Telegram chat group have problems, are called by the KGB for a talk, get fired from work, are detained, receive threats, you know it is time for you to run away,” Marin stated. “This is a list of exactly what some people I interviewed have told me.”

She stressed that many of them thought they were fleeing temporarily - still, there was no guaranteed safety in returning home.

“People do not feel safe [...], there were people who just returned for a funeral, for example, and were detained at the airport. So it is understandable that [Belarusians abroad] are afraid of coming home,” she added. 

The annual report she presented to the UN General Assembly last Wednesday says that even after their relocation abroad, many Belarusian exiles continue to live in fear since their family members risked intimidation in the form of interrogation and arbitrary arrests back home. 

“The number of people detained on politically motivated charges grew to 1,350. Over 634 organisations have been forced to discontinue their activities, including virtually all human rights groups working in the country,”  the UN press release reads.

Marin called on the host countries to establish effective mechanisms to provide legal status to Belarusian nationals who cannot return, mainly because they have no written proof of the repression once in exile. 

“There are countries that could do more. We can not blame them because they are unaware of the problem,” she concluded. “It is hard for people not living in the Soviet Union to imagine what Belarusians are going through.”

Photo by Imre Tömösvári

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