Begun: foreigners arriving in Belarus see real attitude of officials towards people

They don’t show abroad the reality of life in Belarus, but only tell horror stories – as noted by Aleksei Begun, the Head of the Citizenship and Migration Department at the Interior Ministry of Belarus, in his talk with ONT TV channel

Aleksei Begun noted, “Now our neighbours (Poland, Lithuania) are hanging ‘horror stories’ in the form of posters saying that if you go to Belarus, you can stay there. In fact, the information war that is being waged against Belarus is still very unpleasant for us, because they lie about us, twisting the truth. Everything that Belarus does for ordinary citizens, as well as for foreigners, that it gives freedom to those who move to us for permanent residence, is not shown [by our neighbours]. Only horror stories are shown.”

The official added that foreigners coming to Belarus realise that they previously lived in an information vacuum:

“Therefore, foreigners arriving in the country see the reality: the attitude of officials towards people, the work of the entire vertical of power, which is built in relation to everyday problems, and they understand [that what they are told and what they see] – these are completely different things. Foreigners come to realise that before this they lived in an information vacuum.”

Aleksei Begun cited some statistics, “We have 160,000 foreigners living in Belarus and 62,000 persons who have a temporary residence permit in the country. What does this mean? That foreigners strive to live here on a permanent basis. Moreover, every year we give 10,000 residence permits to new applicants.”