GENEVA - Independent human rights experts* today denounced the recent deportation to Lithuania of Belarussian prisoners released from jail, including opposition politicians, media workers and trade unionists.
Many had their Belarusian identity documents confiscated and some were included on the official list of individuals involved in extremist activities.
"The expulsion of the country's own citizens and the arbitrary confiscation of their identity documents violate several human rights, including the right to a nationality, freedom of movement, and the right not to be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with one's privacy," the experts said.
On 11 September 2025, under an agreement reached with the United States of America, Belarus released from prison and brought to the border with Lithuania 52 individuals, most of whom are Belarusian citizens. One of them, opposition politician Mikalai Statkevich, refused to cross the border and subsequently disappeared, while the others found themselves forced into exile. According to reports received, 14 expelled Belarusians had their identity documents confiscated, one held an expired passport and another an invalid passport with torn pages.
"This is yet another measure taken by Belarusian authorities which leads to a risk of statelessness," the experts said, recalling the 2022 and 2023 constitutional and legislative amendments that permitted the revocation of citizenship following in absentia convictions without a fair trial for "extremism" or for causing "severe damage to the interests of Belarus".
They also referred to the 2023 Presidential Decree on consular services, which ended the issuance and renewal of identity documents by Belarusian consular services. The experts added that all these measures run counter to the objectives of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, two treaties which Belarus agreed to ratify during its Universal Periodic Review in 2020.
"We call on the authorities to immediately cease adopting and to revoke all the legislative, regulatory and law-enforcement measures that create a risk of statelessness. This includes the urgent need to amend domestic counter-terrorism and anti-extremism legislation, which is incompatible with international human rights law," the experts said.
