Poland has issued almost 9,000 “Pole Cards” for Belarusians this year, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports.
The “Pole Card” confirms cultural and kinship ties with Poland, giving the right to a national visa, work without additional permits and a simplified path to citizenship. To get a card, you need to prove your Polish roots — kinship with Poles in the family or Polish citizenship of your ancestors. At the same time, the Polish authorities have increased control over the issuance of documents due to fraud cases.
This year, more than 1,800 people have lost their “Pole Cards”. According to the data, more than 160,000 Belarusians have the document, and more than 206,000 such cards have been issued in total. In Belarus, the authorities continue to persecute the owners of the “pole cards”.
