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POZIRK+Pole gets 30 months in prison for smuggling Belarusian cigarettes
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Georgia rejects 80 asylum requests from Belarusians since 2019
May 9, Pozirk. Georgia has rejected all 80 asylum requests from Belarusians since 2019, found Pozirk’s analysis of police data.
It denied asylum to two Belarusians in Q1, 22 in 2025 and as many as 50 in 2024.
Georgia registered just one asylum request from a Belarusian in Q1 compared with 91 throughout 2019 and 40 in 2024.
Georgia deported eight Belarusians in Q1.
Although Georgia has not granted a single asylum request from Belarusians under the Georgian Dream government of pro-Russian oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili, it remains a visa-free country for Belarusians, who can legally stay there for up to one year. Many of the recent migrants fled politically-motivated reprisals after the 2020 political crisis in Belarus.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said that more than 3,700 Belarusians hold Georgian residence permits.
This year, Georgian migration authorities intensified their anti-immigration drive and are conducting raids to identify undocumented migrants, including door-to-door apartment checks, with Belarusians among those targeted. Local media and diaspora activists have reported cases of foreigners being deported on what they describe as trumped-up grounds.
Belarusian opposition leader Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja told Pozirk yesterday that it is currently not possible to negotiate with the Georgian authorities on recognizing expired Belarusian passports or issuing temporary identification documents for foreigners.
Armenia frees Belarusian dissident arrested ahead of Cichanoŭskaja’s visit
May 4, Pozirk. A Belarusian exile, who had to leave the country fearing politically-motivated reprisals, was arrested yesterday afternoon in Armenia at Minsk’s request after crossing from Georgia and freed after the intervention of Belarusian opposition leader Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja. The …
