Page 31 - bne_November 2023_20231105

bne November 2023 Central Europe I 31
with a temporary residency permit because the authorities admit there is a threat to her life in Belarus.
Turning a deaf ear
Laurynas Kasciunas, the conservative Homeland Union chairman of the powerful parliamentary Committee of National Security and Defence (CNSD), turns a deaf ear to all the laments.
“We accepted 60,000 people [Belarusians]. That's a lot. And there will no doubt be a humanitarian corridor for people fleeing the regime – it is humane. But the Wagner [mercenary group’s] arrival in Belarus has changed things, and we have to look at them differently,” Kasciunas insists.
The CNSD head has said on several occasions that many of the Belarusians haven’t been vetted properly upon arrival to Lithuania, meaning that
their loyalty to Lithuania should be investigated. Referring to the findings of the VSD security service, he says approximately 1,000 Belarusians pose a threat to Lithuania’s national security.
“The fact proves that not only human rights defenders, not only the democratic opposition, not only businesses fleeing authoritarianism, but also people connected to the regime in one way or another to the structures are starting to come to Lithuania...Therefore, Lithuania, as a self-respecting state, must manage risks. This is being done through the cancellation of residence permits in Lithuania, the unification of restrictions for Belarusians and Russians,” he says.
“I think no one can be sure that with the thousands of Belarusians in Lithuania, Russia won’t attempt to provoke a hybrid war using them as the card,” he warns.
Political analyst Vytautas Dumbliauskas says the Belarusians who sought refuge in Lithuania should not be surprised about their different treatment now.
“Their country has gone from being Russia’s satellite to a colony, one very supportive of the war in Ukraine. Due to our limited capacity to check the background of all the Belarusians who
arrived in Lithuania en masse then, our special services do the job kind of belatedly – some of the Belarusians are undoubtedly infiltrated by Belarusian intelligence,” he told bne IntelliNews.
The way of obtaining Lithuanian visas by some Belarusians has also aroused suspicions in Lithuania.
Emphasising that foreign nationals
make up nearly 7 per cent of Lithuania's population for the first time since independence, Raimundas Lopata, chairman of the parliamentary Committee for the Future, says that, every day, 4,000 to 4,500 Belarusians cross the border between Lithuania and Belarus.
“Given that we issue about 1,000 visas per month, one wonders who issues visas to the rest of the Belarusians," he says.
The MP says Lithuanian authorities have information that a visa of an EU country can be bought on the "black market" in Minsk for €1,000.
Experts say many of these Belarusian visitors are migrant workers, who are needed because of Lithuania’s skills shortage.
Most temporary residence permits
in Lithuania are granted to drivers, construction workers, and employees
in the industrial and meat processing sectors, according to Investuok Lietuvoje (Invest Lithuania), Lithuania's foreign investment promotion agency.
Others are much sought after IT professionals. Data from Investuok Lietuvoje shows some 5,200 Belarusian IT professionals are now living in Lithuania.
Clear differences
Nevertheless, citing national security concerns, the Seimas, the Lithuanian parliament, is set to revisit the issue of granting temporary residence permits to foreign workers in Lithuania. In
its autumn session it is also likely to reconsider whether to impose more restrictions on Belarusian nationals despite protests by the liberals in the
government. This proposal is backed by President Gitanas Nauseda, who argues that Belarusians should be put under the same restrictions as Russians.
“In late 2020, many ruling MPs rubbed their hands, hoping that the Belarusians will fill up the [workforce] void. Now they appear to be bad. But how to find someone who is an excellent worker, loving Lithuania cordially and answers the mandatory question on the Crimea [which country the Crimea should belong to is part of the questionnaire by Lithuania’s Migration] without a blink of an eye?” a Lithuanian businessman quipped to bne IntelliNews.
Kolega says there are already clear differences between the treatment of Belarusians and Ukrainians.
“Unlike Ukrainians, who can start working here as soon they enter the country, Belarusians, even doctors, who are willing to go to work as nurses in hospitals in the border municipalities, cannot do that. It is very sad,” she says, adding: “The local politicians need a scapegoat. There was the pandemic, the war, the Wagner scare and us.”
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the former Belarusian opposition frontrunner against Lukashenko, who now lives in exile in Vilnius, has warned Lithuanian officials about the souring relations. She said recently that some Belarusian IT companies that have moved to Lithuania are considering exiting the country. She has also spoken out against Lithuania’s decision to shut down two checkpoints on the country’s 670-kilometre border with Belarus.
“We ask the Lithuanian side not to equalise all restrictions for Belarusians and Russians,” Anna Krasulina, communications head for Tsikhanouskaya, told bne IntelliNews. “First of all, this would hit pro-democratic Belarusians, those who participated in the protests in 2020, and our movement as a whole. This will be used by propaganda, which is also trying to equalise Belarusians and Russians, and will sow discord between our peoples, the Belarusians and Lithuanian. We shouldn't allow this to happen.”
www.bne.eu