Polish bank denies Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya account over expired passport

Source: Euroradio

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya was denied a bank account in Poland after her Belarusian passport expired, she said on the independent Belarusian radio station Euroradio.

“I know about the problems with document processing times. I ran into this myself — I wasn’t given a bank account here in Poland after I moved. Well, I’m just like everyone else. […] Well, I have an expired Belarusian passport, I had Lithuanian documents, and… I went, and I was refused. Now I’ll try at some other [bank],” Tsikhanouskaya said, as quoted by Belsat.

She said Poland isn’t refusing to address the problems Belarusians face in legalizing their status and gaining access to banking services.

“It’s just slow, yes, this isn’t the top priority, let’s put it that way. Poland has a lot of internal problems of its own, and there are Ukrainians and Belarusians. I don’t have an answer to when it will all happen, when it becomes super comfortable for Belarusians to live here, but they’re working on it, and we haven’t forgotten about it,” she added.

In September 2023, Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree that halted the issuance and renewal of Belarusian passports at embassies and consulates abroad, requiring citizens to travel to Belarus to do so instead. As a result, some Belarusians living abroad cannot renew their documents, since returning home risks a criminal case against them. Some countries, including Spain, have responded by deciding to recognize Belarusian passports even after they expire.

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

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Polish bank denies Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya account over expired passport

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Polish bank denies Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya account over expired passport

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