Warsaw warns Poles against visiting Belarus on Day of the Dead

October 31, BPN. Polish foreign ministry warned Poles against visiting Belarus on the Day of the Dead when people remember their deceased family members and friends on November 1.

“An attempt to visit a family grave can easily be used against any citizen of Poland,” Łukasz Jasina, a spokesperson for the Polish foreign ministry, told Polskie Radio.

Polish diplomats serving in Minsk will visit as many graves as they can and light candles there, he said. Belarusian Poles, who are now persecuted by Alaksandr Łukašenka’s regime, will do the same, he added.

Jasina admitted that Polish diplomats were limited in their response to what he described as state-sanctioned destruction of Polish military graves in Belarus that started in June 2022 and has affected over a dozen of Polish memorial sites.

The Polish foreign ministry has repeatedly issued statements advising against traveling to Belarus because of rising tensions and military operations in the region as well as arrests of Polish nationals. A total of 12,958 Poles visited Belarus since July 1 after Belarus introduced visa-free rules for Poles, with 1,027 in the last week alone.