Photo: E.Blaževič/LRT
The proposal to limit the travel of Belarusians to their homeland was approved on April 17 by the Committee of the Lithuanian Seimas in the field of national security and defense, writes Delfi. The Seimas as a whole has yet to consider this proposal. If there is a review, it will not be announced.
The idea is that the residence permit for citizens of Belarus and Russia should be canceled if a person visits the country of citizenship more than once every three months, which means that “it will pose a threat to the security of Lithuania.”
The author of the text of the committee’s conclusion, Arvydas Anušauskas, noted that the proposal would not solve problems through third-country nationals arriving in Lithuania through Russia, but generally supported the draft as a compromise option.
The Committee did not support a tougher proposal to revoke a residence permit if a citizen of Belarus or Russia travels to his homeland more often than once a quarter for 12 months.
The draft edits noted that “the absolute majority of Belarusians who have a temporary residence permit in Lithuania return to Belarus more or less regularly,” including those who were granted a residence permit on humanitarian grounds. According to the authors of the project, if Belarusians return to their homeland, they can be recruited there, given tasks for intelligence.
Since March only two of the six border crossings on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border have remained open. However, according to Lithuanian politicians, this did not lead to a decrease in the flow of people. Currently, more than 60,000 Belarusians live in Lithuania, some of them return to their homeland up to seven times a year.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya previously opposed the amendments on depriving Belarusians of a Lithuanian residence permit due to very frequent trips to their homeland. She believes that people who have fled political persecution cannot return home anyway, and it is important to isolate the Lukashenka regime, not Belarusians.