Georgia refused entry to a Belarusian refugee who had temporarily left for a visa run
From Batumi Airport, the Belarusian was sent on a morning flight on June 1st to Yerevan Airport.
Batumi
Upon arrival, the man's Belarusian passport was checked for almost an hour, but he was allowed into Armenia, writes "Radio Racyja".
"One of the Belarusians living in Georgia was detained and deported. It's good that he was deported to Armenia, not to Belarus. Because in Belarus, he faced criminal prosecution. He is a political prisoner. This is a situation where Belarusians remain in Georgia and their period of stay expires, so they do a visa run [a temporary exit from Georgia to a neighboring country to re-enter legally for a year — NN]. This is dangerous because now the practice of the Georgian authorities and Georgian legislation have changed, and Belarusians, along with other citizens, are being detained for illegal stay in Georgia and deported," states human rights activist Raman Kisliak.
Kisliak states that this is not the first such case involving Belarusians. The human rights activist also knows of cases where Belarusian activists are not allowed into Georgia, being deemed a threat to national security, but the number of such cases is small.