On January 18 this year, the Polish Ministry of Interior's working group held another meeting involving Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's advisor on legal issues Kristina Rikhter, representative of the Center of Belarusian Solidarity Volha Dabravolskaya, and lawyer of National Anti-Crisis Management Artsiom Praskalovich. The meeting discussed the facilitation of legalization of stay for Belarusians in Poland who have fled persecution in their homeland. On January 24, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and representatives of the United Transitional Cabinet met with Polish Minister of Interior Mariusz Kaminski to, among other things, discuss the simplification of legalization and migration procedures to make them more efficient and less burdensome.
As a result of these meetings, Poland amended its legislation on travel documents. In particular, the Foreigners Act has been supplemented with provisions that expand the list of grounds for issuing travel documents. In fact, after the changes come into effect and the relevant order is signed by the Minister of Interior, Belarusians with temporary or permanent residence permits in Poland will be able to receive travel documents fee-free.
Deputy Minister Bartosh Grodecki also confirmed the Ministry of Interior's intention to support Belarusians who cannot exchange their travel documents in their homeland: “After negotiations with the Belarusian community in Poland and with Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Minister Mariusz Kaminski decided that this document would be issued for free. The minister made this decision considering the situation of the Belarusian community and the support Poland provides to democratic Belarus. These people lead a normal life in Poland, they want to travel, but they may have legitimate concerns about contacting their country's diplomatic and consular offices or returning to Minsk to obtain the document”.
Kristina Rikhter commented on the fruitful cooperation with the Polish Ministry of Interior's working group on solving migration issues for Belarusians, as well as Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's meeting with the leadership of the ministry, which is yielding results. “We are very grateful to our partners for their willingness to delve into Belarusians' problems and respond with concrete steps to solve them”.
