Belarusians May Need Two Passports :: Charter'97 :: News

Apparently, Belarusians are about to return to the Soviet times, when the citizens used to have two passports: one for internal use and another – for overseas trips.

Spreading rumors that in the near future the country’s residents will be obliged to replace their national passport by two: national and foreign, appeared not long ago. For the first time the foreign office officials started disseminating news about the possible innovation in summer. For the time being, this is but private information.

In the Department for passports and visa relations, the officials declined to comment on the matter, claiming that it’s out of their competence.

According to the specialists, there’s a need to change passports. First, because the visa pages in the blue passport are quickly coming to an end and, secondly, because when a person submits his passport for getting the visa, he is temporarily deprived of the only ID.

Chairman of the United Civil Party Anatoly Lebedko, who had numerously faced problems with immigrating abroad, said the following: “I’m astonished why they do it only now. Undoubtedly, this is a restriction of the freedom of movement. By so doing, I figure, the regime is trying to impose control on the residents’ foreign trips. The new measure will split them into two categories: those, whom the state treats loyally and those, whom it disfavors.”

We cannot avoid the financial aspect too. Does the state budget contain enough resources to fund the issue of new passports?