Belarusian Foreign Ministry Reveals New Details Of Lukashenka’s Scandalous Passports Decree
- 9.09.2023, 11:40
Whom exactly will it concern?
Many Belarusians abroad, having read the “consular” decree of Aliaksandr Lukashenka, hoped that it only applied to citizens “permanently residing outside the Republic of Belarus” — that is, those who had formalized their moving abroad and received a PP series passport. Despite the fact that the text of the decree and comments from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs clearly indicate that this applies to all Belarusians abroad and all passports, Zerkalo readers have repeatedly asked for clarification of this point — journalists did this by contacting the Saturday telephone line of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In order to become a “permanently residing abroad” Belarusian, it was necessary to go through a special procedure, which included obtaining a passport of a citizen of the Republic of Belarus for permanent residence outside Belarus (PP series passport) with simultaneous deregistration at the previous place of residence in Belarus.
The wording “permanently residing outside the Republic of Belarus” is also present in the “consular” decree of Aliaksandr Lukashenka.
Some optimistic Belarusians believed that the ban on replacing or obtaining a Belarusian passport abroad would only affect those officially “permanently residing abroad.”
“The decree applies to absolutely all Belarusians located or living abroad, regardless of what series of passports they have,” we were told on the Foreign Ministry hotline. “In order to get a new passport, you need to come to Belarus”.
The Foreign Ministry also explained the difference between Belarusians with PP series passports and Belarusians with passports of other series.
“If you have a PP series passport, you can exchange it in Belarus by contacting the internal affairs authorities or the main consular department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Minsk. If you have a passport of a different series — only the internal affairs bodies”.
On September 7, Aliaksandr Lukashenka’s decree officially came into force, according to which diplomatic missions will no longer issue passports and issue some other documents to Belarusians abroad. To obtain, exchange or extend the validity of a passport, one will have to travel to Belarus.