After the 2020 mass protests in Belarus, the forced landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk, the migration crisis on the EU’s eastern borders, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, neighboring countries have significantly revised their approach to Belarusians.
Previously, entry, visas, and legal residence were mainly considered migration policy issues. Since 2022, these matters have increasingly been addressed as national security concerns in Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland.
In the study “A Comparative Risk-Governance Analysis of Policies Toward Belarusians in Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland, 2022–2025,” prepared for the Belarus Young Research Award, researcher Dzianis Piskunovich analyzes how these countries developed restrictions and control mechanisms affecting Belarusian citizens from 2022 to 2025. The study compares their approaches to border crossings, visa issuance, residence permits, and extensions of legal stay for Belarusians.
The research finds that, despite differences in policy design, all three countries have shifted to managing Belarusian mobility from a security perspective. Consequently, measures intended to address security risks often impact not only high-risk individuals but also political exiles, students, skilled professionals, and others who left Belarus due to repression.
The author proposes an alternative risk-governance model to balance legitimate security concerns with ongoing support for democratic-minded Belarusians in exile.
This research was prepared within the framework of the Belarus Young Research Award 2025. This project is funded by the European Union.
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