{"id":210929,"date":"2026-11-07T22:20:44","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T19:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/210929\/"},"modified":"2026-11-07T22:20:46","modified_gmt":"2026-11-07T19:20:46","slug":"undocumented-exile-arrested-in-georgia-facing-deportation-to-belarus","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/210929\/","title":{"rendered":"Undocumented exile arrested in Georgia, facing deportation to Belarus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

November 7, Pozirk<\/em>.<\/strong> An exiled citizen of Belarus whose passport has expired was arrested in Georgia on November 6 and may be deported to his home country, human rights activist Raman Ki\u015blak has told Pozirk<\/em> without disclosing the individual\u2019s name for security reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Ki\u015blak, Georgian authorities have rejected the Belarusian national\u2019s application for political asylum, despite the fact that Belarus is persecuting him on political grounds. The interior ministry\u2019s migration department, the city court and apparently the appellate court have all refused to grant him international protection, just like they turn down all such requests by Belarusians, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Belarusian was arrested while police were checking the IDs of subway passengers. His temporary identification document has expired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe applied to Georgia for political asylum back in 2023 and also tried to renew his passport through the Belarusian embassy, before Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka issued a notorious edict in September 2023 banning Belarusian diplomatic missions from providing consular services,\u201d Ki\u015blak said. \u201cHowever, the embassy refused to issue him a new passport, probably because he is facing criminal prosecution in Belarus. Without a passport, he wasn\u2019t able to leave Georgia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given that the Belarusian has no valid documents, he may only be deported to Belarus, and it is currently unknown whether a third country like Armenia will be able to receive him, Ki\u015blak said. Georgian regulations do not allow travel documents to be issued abroad, ruling out so-called voluntary deportation by undocumented individuals, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A court is expected to decide on the Belarusian\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBelarusian community activists, including myself, plan to hold rallies to demand the person\u2019s release pending the court\u2019s ruling,\u201d Ki\u015blak said. \u201cSecondly, we\u2019ll urge Tbilisi to allow him to leave for a third country if Georgia wants to get rid of him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ki\u015blak, who was also facing deportation from Georgia earlier this year, managed to secure a reprieve after Georgia\u2019s authorities targeting him as an \u201cillegal migrant\u201d had agreed to wait for the UN Human Rights Committee to make a decision on his appeal against their refusal to grant him political asylum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Georgia, a visa-free country for Belarusians, is home to about 12,000 citizens of Belarus, many of whom fled their country for fear of politically motivated persecution after the 2020 presidential election, but their number keeps shrinking. Georgia has not granted asylum to a single Belarusian under the Georgian Dream government of pro-Russian oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Georgian migration authorities have intensified their anti-immigration campaign and have been conducting raids to identify undocumented migrants, including door-to-door 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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