Opposition youth Anastasiya Palazhanka told that she was placed on foreign travel ban list by mistake
19:34, — Politics
Young opposition activist Anastasiya Palazhanka has been told that she was placed on the list of Belarusians banned from exiting the country by mistake.
On the morning of April 5, the 18-year-old was put off a Minsk-Warsaw train at the Varshawski Most checkpoint in Brest. Belarusian border guards explained to her that she was on the foreign travel ban list, as criminal proceedings were instituted against her on March 14, 2008.
Ms. Palazhanka asked the interior ministry to provide clarifications, saying that she was unaware of any criminal proceedings against her.
In its reply, the ministry said that Ms. Palazhanka had been put on the list due to a computer glitch and offered apologies to the activist. Her name has already been deleted from the list, the ministry noted.
“This fact is evidence that absolutely any person can get on the foreign travel ban list because of any computer glitch and he or she can be turned away at the border,” Ms. Palazhanka told BelaPAN.
The woman said that she would have sued the ministry over the matter had she kept the train ticket.
In March, Ms. Palazhanka was elected deputy chairperson of Malady Front (Young Front), a Czech-registered youth opposition group.
In May 2007, she was among five opposition youths who stood trial on a charge of acting on behalf of an unregistered organization, Malady Front. She got away with a warning, as she was under 18 years of age, whereas the others were sentenced to heavy fines.
Malady Front activists have made several unsuccessful attempts to legalize their organization, which has been in existence for more than a decade. All their applications for registration have been rejected by the justice ministry.
On January 1, the Belarusian government abolished travel permit stamps in passports and introduced an electronic passport check system. The system includes a list of some 100,000 Belarusians barred from leaving the country. This travel ban list is in fact secret and, as a rule, people learn that they are on the list from border guards on arrival at the border.
Among those on the list are Anatol Lyabedzka, chairman of the United Civic Party, and prominent young opposition activists Barys Haretski and Zmitser Dashkevich.
