On January 1, 2020, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will start to issue citizens of Belarus ID-cards and biometric passports for traveling abroad. This was stated on TV by Alyaksei Byahun, Head of Citizenship and Migration Department of the MIA.
“Biometric passports will also be paper-based. That is, they are similar to the national Belarusian passports that we make today. They will just have electronic media. There’s already the leader’s decisions in this matter,” Byahun said.
Head of the Department for Citizenship and Migration of the Ministry of Interior also spoke about the benefits of biometric passports.
“Firstly, the biometric passport is used exclusively for travelling abroad. It has 30 pages intended for visas and border crossing stamps. In addition, it is assumed and it is planned that the citizen of Belarus may simultaneously have two biometric documents to cross the border in order to facilitate their mobility. In addition, the biometric passport has the so-called electronic chip that will contain all of their personal data,” said Alyaksei Byahun.
In fact, the owner of the biometric passport is trusted more by representatives of law enforcement agencies, as well as the competent authorities of foreign countries responsible for border crossing or for the issuance of visas.
In addition, it has many more degrees of protection against forgery.
