Belarusian President Cuts Off Exiled Citizens With Passport Ban

  • President Lukashenko makes impossible to get passports abroad
  • Decree also requires personal presence to sell real estate

A Belarus passport.

Photographer: Misha Friedman/Getty Images
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Belarusian embassies will no longer issue passports, a move that may hurt the diaspora’s ability to stay abroad legally unless its members risk a trip home where repressions continue unabated.

President Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree on Monday which only allows people to apply for new passports in Belarus. It also requires that owners of real estate and cars to either be physically present in order to sell their property, or produce a power of attorney signed inside Belarus.