The head of the Lithuanian Interior Ministry's Migration Department says the number of Belarusian nationals seeking so-called foreigners' passports is likely to rise following a consular clampdown by Minsk but that Belarusians who fled the regime and have the proper documentation can receive the alternative Lithuanian travel document in as little as five days.
Migration Department Director Evelina Gudzinskaite said foreigners' passports have been used only rarely in the past but that more than 1,000 Belarusians who fled their homeland now live in Lithuania.
SEE ALSO: Belarus Condemned By U.S., EU For Depriving Citizens Abroad Of Fundamental RightVilnius and other EU capitals are seeking ways to ease life for Belarusian expatriates since longtime ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka last week ordered his embassies abroad to stop issuing new passports and limit other services in what critics fear is an effort to clamp down further on dissent.
Tens of thousands of Belarusians have left Belarus since Lukashenka claimed a sixth presidential mandate after a flawed presidential election in 2020 and unleashed a brutal crackdown on unprecedented pro-democracy demonstrations and on opposition leaders.
The presidential challenger who claimed to have beaten Lukashenka on a tide of public dissatisfaction and resentment against his police-state tactics, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, fled to neighboring Lithuania along with many other opposition leaders who were either expelled or threatened with jail terms.
Gudzinskaite told Delfi.lt in remarks published on September 11 that Vilnius believes demand will grow following Lukashenka's most recent tightening of services to Belarusian citizens abroad.
She then told RFE/RL's Belarus Service that just 16 Belarusians applied to Lithuanian authorities for the foreigners' passports all of last year.
"More than 1,000 Belarusians who left and cannot return to their homeland now live in Lithuania," Gudzinskaite said. "Sooner or later, their passports will expire and they will need another document."
She said that "if all the documents are in order, the procedure for preparing a passport of a foreign citizen takes five days."
According to Lukashenka's decree published on September 4, Belarusians can only get a new passport or renew an old one inside Belarus.
Belarus's largely exiled opposition has called the move a “repressive mechanism.”
They have expressed hope that European and other governments will help Belarusians avoid being forced to return to the country against their will -- particularly those who might face jail or other persecution from a regime seemingly spurred by its deepening alliance with Moscow and increasing isolation from the West.