Oleg Borshchevsky, Belarusian journalist in Lithuanian exile, will not be deported to Belarus. The director of the Lithuanian migration authority announced this to Baltic News Service (BNS) last weekend. Oleg previously received a deportation notice, to which the Belarusian diaspora in Lithuania reacted with lots of concerned letters to the authorities. In Germany, the Antimilitarist Action Berlin showed its solidarity with an action at Berlin Central Station and a letter to the Lithuanian embassy. “The fact that Oleg was saved from the threat of deportation in less than a week shows that solidarity works!” says Jan Hansen, spokesperson for the Antimilitarist Action Berlin.
No deportation to Lukashenko’s Belarus
Last week, activists from the Antimilitarist Action Berlin added to the welcome message of the “Welcome Buddy Bear” at Berlin Central Station. They hung a cardboard speech bubble around the bear statue, making it tell passers-by: “No deportation to Lukashenko’s Belarus” and “Asylum for Oleg Borschevsky.” The background to the action: Oleg Borschevsky, journalist of the Belarusian opposition and member of the civil rights organization “Nash Dom” (English: “Our House”) was to be deported from Lithuania to Belarus. But now, the head of the Lithuanian migration authority announces in the media that Oleg will not be deported.
Director of the Migration Department: Oleg will not be deported
On Monday, March 25, Oleg Borshchevsky received an official deportation notice in which the authorities explained to him that he would be deported to Belarus if he did not leave Lithuania “voluntarily”. Less than a week later, on Sunday, March 31st, Evelina Gudzinskaitė, director of the Lithuanian Migration Department, told Baltic News Service (BNS): “The migration department is currently not planning to deport [Oleg].” Oleg has now applied for a residence permit on the basis that his children live in Lithuania. Gudzinskaitė said: “If the documents are correct, he will be issued a residence permit on the basis of family reunification.”
https://www.bns.lt/topic/1912/news/70902819/
Belarus means risk of prison and torture
So Oleg will not receive asylum in Lithuania for the time being, but the head of the migration authority has publicly guaranteed that he will not be deported to Belarus. That’s good news. In Belarus, he would have been threatened with prison and torture, because he runs the website of Belarusian civil rights organization “Nash Dom” (“Our House”). But how did the migration authority’s sudden change of heart come about?
Practical solidarity with Oleg
During last week, exiled Belarusians living in Lithuania associated with Nash Dom sent a lot of letters to the migration department. At the same time, Nash Dom published press releases about Oleg’s situation. This may have increased the pressure on the authority to such an extent that the boss deemed it appropriate to make a public statement to smooth things over. Perhaps our solidarity campaign at Berlin Central Station and our letter to the Lithuanian embassy also contributed something. What is happening shows what solidarity can achieve in practical terms.
Long live international solidarity!
In this example, solidarity also works the other way around, reports Jan Hansen: “Last year, when we got into trouble with the German secret service because, in its annual report, it framed our actions against the Russian attack on Ukraine as a danger to democracy, Nash Dom showed solidarity with us in a public statement.“ According to Hansen, this helped with public relations. “And it just felt great to not be alone with such experiences of repression.”
More info:
BNS report:
https://www.bns.lt/topic/1912/news/70902819/
Our protest letter to the Lithuanian ambassador
Nash Dom in solidarity with Antimilitarist Action Berlin against the secret service
Nash Dom’s concrete work in Vilnius: