September 16, Pozirk. Belarusian journalist Andrej Mialeška and his daughter were denied entry to Georgia where they returned after a trip to Poland, he has told Pozirk.
Georgian authorities took their passports and reportedly plan to put both on the Kutaisi-Warsaw flight scheduled for this afternoon.
Mialeška, a journalist with Radio Racyja, his wife and two children have been living in Georgia’s Batumi after they fled Belarus three years ago fearing politically-motivated persecution.
“I don’t understand anything that is said in this document that I was given, it says ‘other reasons’,” the journalist said. “Our passports will be returned to us when we go to Poland. They [Georgian officials] don’t say anything else.”
Mialeška said he tried to apply for asylum in Georgia but cannot do it without a passport.
Belarusian exiled dissidents regularly experience difficulties in obtaining political asylum in Georgia.
Also read: Belarusian rights defender appeals denied asylum in Georgia
