Olga wears a red and white flag on her shoulders and a protective mask with the same colors covers her face. Even his boots are in the colors of the old Belarusian flag, a symbol of the protests against the country’s controversial president, Alexander Lukashenko.
While in Belarus this political display could even be punished by jail time, in Sweden this 52-year-old woman is not concerned.
“I feel good and safe here,” she assures in conversation with Euronews, from the Scandinavian country where she arrived in August 2019. Although she feels safer in Sweden, her future is uncertain: her process to obtain asylum in the country has been rejected. And this is not an isolated case, all over Europe we find situations like yours.
Large protests broke out in Belarus when Lukashenko was re-elected in the presidential elections with 80% of the vote. Many voices clamored against what they considered a rigged vote. The streets were filled with protesters and the president responded with a brutal repression.
Thousands of protesters were jailed and denounced police abuses. Outrage went around the world when a Ryanair flight carrying dissident journalist Roman Protasevich was diverted to Minsk and Lukashenko’s critic was arrested.
Asylum application rejected in Sweden and throughout Europe
Despite the situation in Belarus, Olga is not the only one who has been denied asylum in Europe. According to the Swedish Migration Agency, in the first 11 months of 2021 only 3 out of 125 Belarusians received asylum in Sweden, which is barely 2%.
If we compare the data with those of previous years, we observe that the percentage of decisions in favor of granting asylum did not increase after the controversial presidential elections of August 2020.
In June 2021, Liberal MP Maria Nilsson asked Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde what the government was doing to improve the situation.
“The government’s goal is to ensure a long-term, sustainable migration policy,” Linde said. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintains a recurring dialogue with local human rights and civil society organizations and collects their opinion to find out how Sweden can support democratic development in Belarus.”
The data shows a similar situation for Belarusian immigrants in most European Union countries. According to Eurostat, only five countries granted a higher number of asylum applications: Poland, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Italy and Estonia.
International organizations have asked different countries to support Belarusians. In October 2021, the European Parliament adopted a resolution urging EU countries to “further simplify visa and residency procedures for those fleeing Belarus for political reasons.”
Some MEPs also called for greater recognition of Belarusian exiles.
“It is time we granted refugees from Belarus temporary work and residence permits in the EU, as well as finally adopting sanctions against Belarusian products that finance the illegitimate Lukashenko regime,” Austrian Greens MEP Thomas wrote on Twitter. Waitz.
A human catastrophe in Belarus
Franak Viačorka, advisor to the Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, supports the MEP’s position.
“Unfortunately, the European bureaucracy does not always keep pace with the changes in Belarus,” he told Euronews. “In Sweden, as in many EU countries, the migration services consider Belarus a safe country. Therefore, cases are examined in a standard way. Without additional evidence, people are not granted asylum.”
According to Viačorka, Tsikhanouskaya’s office is working to ease the conditions for obtaining a visa, residence permits or asylum for Belarusian exiles.
“We call on European countries to consider Belarus as a country in which a humanitarian catastrophe is taking place,” he added. “We ask that you grant the displaced residence and work permits without delay.”
Anaïs Marin, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, claims to have received evidence and testimonies of serious human rights violations in the country.
“The climate of impunity shows us that the victims of these abuses in Belarus cannot obtain justice in their country. That is why it is important that other countries remain faithful to their own values of protection of human rights.”
“According to the Convention [de las Naciones Unidas] Against Torture, it is absolutely forbidden to return a person who may be subjected to torture in his country. And, in Belarus, the risk of torture remains extremely high. I hope that all countries that receive asylum applications will take this into account. “
According to Freedom House, Belarus is among the 15 countries with the weakest global freedom score. But the country is also among the 15 countries whose citizens are least likely to receive asylum in Sweden.
“Beatings, torture, blackmail”
Olga arrived in Sweden just one year before the Belarusian elections in August 2020. Ten years earlier, she decided to join the opposition organization Movement for Freedom and was in charge of creating the database with all its members. He was also a personal assistant to the 2010 presidential candidate, Ales Mikhalevich.
In preparation for the 2020 elections, the authorities began to ask him to tell them what Mijalevich was doing. “They threatened me using my son and my business. They wanted me to record compromising evidence,” he tells Euronews.
“Many people believe that the repression began in May 2020, but this is not the case. Before, there had already been alizas, torture and blackmail, but not on such a scale.” She fled in 2019 after being beaten by a group of masked men.
After the 2020 elections, Olga began working as a volunteer in two NGOs Imena and BYSOL, to support the victims of the repression in Belarus. “I kept a Telegram channel and a database of beaten people,” he says. “There was a lot of data that had to be organized.”
Imena was one of 200 Belarusian NGOs liquidated last summer. BYSOL was designated as an extremist and is under criminal prosecution.
“Criminal cases were opened against Tsikhanouskaya, Latushka and 15 other people for establishing People’s Embassies,” said Dmitri Vasserman, representative of one of these embassies in Sweden. “We don’t know who the other 15 people are. Therefore, anyone who is associated with or has worked with the People’s Embassy could be jailed.”
‘It seems that the immigration court did not even read my case’
Olga applied for asylum when she arrived in Sweden and her request was rejected. In November the Swedish Migration Court rejected his appeal. “By way of justification, the migration court assures that Belarus is a calm and safe country,” Olga said. “But everything that moves in Belarus is destroyed.”
The court’s decision, which Euronews read, states that the situation in Belarus is not “of such a nature that she can be granted residence in Sweden” and adds that Olga “did not have a prominent political profile.”
“It seems that the immigration court has not even read my case,” says Olga. “I did not work as a herald, but I made databases. I had a lot of information in my hands, which in no case should have fallen into the hands of the authorities.”
The migration court believes that Olga has not shown that “in a prospective assessment there is a concrete and personal threat against her in her country of origin due to her political opinion.”
But Marín, the UN special rapporteur, disagrees. “People who, even in their private conversations or on social media, dare to criticize or mock the government can be subjected to harassment, intimidation, threats and eventually arrest,” says Marin.
Marin cannot identify specific groups of people who face the greatest threat. “Potentially, anyone who expresses dissenting opinions or who tries to access their right to freedom of expression can be the victim of human rights abuses,” he adds.
“Not everyone needs protection just because they are from Belarus”
A process specialist from the Swedish Migration Agency (SMA), Fredrik Jonasson, assured Euronews that they do not have statistics on the reasons why asylum is rejected. “It is the result of the individual examination of asylum applications,” he said.
Jonasson noted that the agency does not have a legal position document for Belarus. This document is a binding guideline to recognize the security situation of a country as a reason for granting asylum.
“We have it for the other 15 countries from which many asylum seekers come to Sweden,” he explained. “There have been applicants from Belarus, of course, many, but not so many that we need a legal position paper.”
“Of course, we know that the situation in Belarus is serious. And we know what is happening after last year’s elections,” said Jonasson, adding that “not everyone needs international protection just because they are from Belarus. To be in that situation, there must be an internal or external conflict. “
es.euronews.com
Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.