In the last two years, quite a few of our comrades left prison: some after completing their sentences, others were released as a result of pardons negotiated between the dictator and US diplomats in exchange of easing sanctions. We are preparing a longer analysis on this kind of trading and how it enables dictatorship, but today, we wanted to focus on what awaits released political prisoners on the outside and why they need even more support than before.
As a reminder, all imprisoned anarchists are put on a list of extremists and some additionally end up on the terrorist list. What is means is that once they are released in Belarus, they can’t open a bank account, can’t register a phone number, can’t register as self-employed. Of course, most employers would refuse hiring them as they can’t even transfer salary to the ex-prisoner, saying nothing of them being scared of engaging with an “extremist”. People on the extremist list can’t engage in publishing activity or teaching. Combined, this effectively pushes the released to the grey economy zone and makes them dependent on external support.
Moreover, every released person usually falls under police supervision for a period of up to 2 years. This means they have to check-in with local police weekly, be at home at specified hours, ask for permission to leave town and can’t leave the country. Most ex-prisoners feel like they were just moved to a prison with a milder security and prefer to move abroad illegally, meaning they then have a criminal case opened in Belarus resulting from violation of the supervision.
In the last two years, about 850 prisoners have been released on pardon, many of them were expelled from Belarus right from prison and ended up in Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine. These people don’t have their passports, so they need to ask for international protection or a similar humanitarian status. While they are waiting for decision, they can’t work, travel but need to be able to pay the rent and support themselves. The majority of ex-prisoners don’t speak the language of the host country or English, which limits their employment opportunities. Many experience depression and anxiety over losing access to homeland and family, the need to start from scratch in an unfamiliar place, and PTSD resulting from years of isolation. According to our in-depth interviews with released comrades, it takes over a year to regain the agency and become more independent in a new country.
There are multiple organisations and projects that try to meet the most urgent needs of the expelled prisoners. We at ABC Belarus also assign a part of our budget to the immediate or ongoing support of the ex-prisoners. Your donations are greatly appreciated and can be made at abc-belarus.org/donate