Scanlan: It's up to Belarus government whether visas are issued in Minsk
The U.S. Embassy in Minsk still has no possibility to issue visas to Belarusians
"We very much recognize and apologize to Belarusians for this inconvenience, but the issue is in the hands of your government, not ours." - said Chief of the U.S. Mission Michael Scanlan to Euroradio.
It has been three years that the U.S. Embassy has been unable to provide visa services to thousands of people wishing to visit the U.S.
Michael Scanlan: "Before the Belarusian Government in 2008 unilaterally forced us to reduce our American staff by eighty-five percent [to 5 people] in retaliation for my government’s imposing economic sanctions to protest severe human rights violations, back then the Embassy processed over 13,000 visa applications annually. Given this severe reduction in our staff, we simply are not technically able to provide regular visa services."
Since 2008, Belarusians are now forced to apply for visas at US Embassies in neighboring countries, Russia and Ukraine in particular. There is no statistics available about issuance figures.
