Belarus to abolish 'propiska'

Belarus is set to abolish the residence permit, known in the former Soviet countries as ‘propiska’, and to replace it with the mandatory registration. The Civil Affairs Department at the Ministry of Interior is expected to deal with it.

People will be registered in two ways: a permanent residence registration and a temporary residence registration. The measure is introduced, because ‘propiska’ violates the right of Belarusians to travel freely across the country.

 

Not only this. Worldwide, people have become more mobile, looking for jobs and often working in a location different from their residence. The government, however, wants to know all about the movements of every citizen.

 

“Usually, registration is needed to know how many and were the people are. For instance, it allows tracking the labor force migration. If the government possesses this information, relevant agencies can analyze and take use of those data in order, for instance, to plan investments or create new jobs,” says political analyst Andrej Kazakevich.

 

‘Propiska’ dates back to the Czarist Russia times. It was abolished by the 1917 Russian revolution, but later reinstalled in 1922. The Soviet Government resolutions in 1974 were the last legal regulations on this matter. In early 1990s, the Constitutional Supervisory Committee of the USSR admitted that propiska violated the Constitution and the international legal standards.

 

The 1994 Belarus Constitution set forth the right of citizens to a free travel and a choice of residence. Legislation to ensure the transition to registration was to be enforced within five years. The amended Constitution also emphasized the right to free travel, but ‘propiska’ has remained up to now.

 

The abolishment of propiska will give the people an opportunity to work and live in the places they desire. In the other countries, this transition initially caused a heavy influx of new labor force into the capital, leaving the regional jobs abandoned. But, the situation would normally get stabilized within one year. In this country, the registration is explained as “controls over the labor-age population”. Andrej Kazakevich offers his forecast of how it could affect people.

 

“There could be usual programs of economic development of the regions where people are migrating from. Or, vice versa, it could mean the creation of new jobs where the labor is migrating. But, it could also mean some administrative measures like a restricted migration from the regions to Minsk or simply from new villages where the government is currently investing huge money into,” he said.

 

Belarus has the Law on the Population Register. The authorities try to create a complete and multi-functional population database. Earlier, our personal data would be scattered among different agency. Now, this information will be stored in a single operational system. Lawyer Mihail Pastuhou tells us what this could lead us to.

 

“This will lead us to a more stringent control from the government over the movement and doings of every citizen. Relevant agencies, the Ministry of Interior in this case, will have a complete file for everyone. Possibly, it could even contain fingerprints. Such a personal file will help the authorities exert control over every individual, especially those under suspicion. This means a potential endangerment for human freedom,” Pastukhou said.

 

Here we come. On the one hand, the Belarusians are permitted to travel freely across the country. On the other hand, the government tries to infringe on their privacy. Maybe this is the way, as the notorious Belarusian question reads.

 

Let’s look around and see what is going on in the neighboring countries. In the European nations, police or revenue authorities do have personal files. But, they do not have such a total control over everyone the way they are trying to install in this country.