The head of the Department for Citizenship and Migration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Alyaksey Byahun, said on ONT channel that over the period of 1.5 years only two cases were recorded of foreigners who had arrived in Belarus on visa-free status were brought to criminal responsibility.
In total, 140 thousand foreigners have used this visa-free regime.
Also there were cases of bringing foreigners to administrative responsibility (mainly, this is an offense related to drinking alcoholic beverages). However, according to Byahun, no more than 1% of foreigners turned out to be lawbreakers.
The official recalled that the foreigners who come on visa-free travel are required to register with the internal affairs bodies in the first 5 days. “In addition, foreigners are registered by the agrihostels, hotels or those organizations that are authorized to conduct this procedure. We also made a proposal to switch to the registration procedure via the Internet. I think that from next year such a service will already be realized for foreigners temporarily staying in Belarus,” he said.
On July 24, Alyaksandr Lukashenka signed a decree increasing the term of visa-free stay of foreigners in Belarus to 30 days, subject to entry and exit through the airport Minsk.
belsat.eu, ONT
