Czech Republic most willing to give refuge to Belarusians

Euroradio has found out that sometimes the people who call themselves refugees are not even close to being them. Netherlands and Norway even suspended financial support to applicants from Belarus, when it became clear that many of them looked not for a refuge, but for money.

The statistics shows that last year, the European immigration authorities decided that the Belarusian refugees had reasons to fear for their safety at home, and gave them refuge, in 220. 90 of them received a positive decision after a successful appeal against the initial denial of asylum. It is unknown which discrimination in Belarus the applicants mentioned most often - political, ethnic, sexual or any other - this information is confidential.

The positive decision in the EU member states (plus Switzerland and Norway) is taken with regard to approximately every seventh application of Belarusian citizens. The figure of 15% of the positive decisions in the first instance of the migration (135 of 925 decisions on applications of Belarusians in 2011) is pretty low. For comparison, the rate of the EU’s positive decisions on the applications of refugees all over the world was 25%.

It turns out that last year the Czech Republic was the country which gave refuge to the Belarusians most willingly. This is the only country that actually satisfied all the 30 submitted applications. Moreover, all the 40 appeals against the previous denials were satisfied. *

Former presidential candidate Ales Mikhalevich, who recently received political asylum in the Czech Republic himself, says that is happens this way primarily due to the fact that the so-called “real refugees” go to the Czech Republic.

Ales Mikhalevich: "In the Czech Republic, there is no system of social assistance to those who ask for asylum. The asylum includes the right to work, equal to those that the Czechs have, but you have to work! Therefore, there are no opportunities for the so-called social refugees, who are simply seeking a better life by doing nothing, in the Czech Republic. They seek refuge in other countries in Western Europe. "

Apart from the Czech Republic, the countries which satisfied the most applications for asylum last year were the UK (20 of 35 initial decisions), Poland (20 of 40), and also Lithuania, Spain and Italy (each satisfied 5 out of 10 applications).

Meanwhile, the immigration authorities of other countries approved a very small part (or none) of applications for asylum of Belarusian citizens. For example, the Netherlands took positive decisions in 15 cases out of 210, Sweden granted 15 out of 255, France – 10 out of 75. Switzerland and Finland did not satisfy any of the 50 and 35 applications respectively.

It is possible that a significant part of the Belarusians came to these countries not for the sake of political, ethnic, or other type of pressure in the country, but for the sake of gaining easy money, as in the case of the Netherlands and Norway.

Official of the Norwegian Migration Agency Knut Bertsen says that Norwegian immigration authorities are working with their counterparts in the Nordic countries. They know that Belarusians often misuse the Norwegian migration regulations. But, Bertsen adds, the pseudo-refugees’ profiles may differ from country to country.

Knut Bertsen: "We constantly exchange information with our colleagues from Sweden and Finland. However, we need to realize that when there are cases of misuse of the migration regulations there, it doesn't mean that the applicants' profiles will be the same, and they can also state different reasons for asking for asylum".

Euroradio reminds that recently there was a sharp increase in the number of applications for asylum in Norway, filed by Belarusians. It turned out that most of the applicants came from Hrodna, were aged from 20 to 30 and had little awareness about the institution of asylum. They filed their applications to receive a special reintegration grant, equal to almost 3000 euros. Then the Norwegian immigration authorities decided to suspend the issuance of such grant to the applicants from Belarus.

 * Note: All figures of the Eurostat statistics which is used in the article are rounded up to five integers.