Over half a million people have fled Belarus since 2020 to escape dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka, one of the country’s leading sociologists has said.
According to Hienadź Korszunau, the former head of the Institute of Sociology at the Academy of Sciences of Belarus, the mass emigration of approximately 600,000 people was the result of intensified repression following the rigged presidential elections in 2020.
It was also influenced by Russian aggression against Ukraine and Lukashenka’s support, which saw the country being made available for Russian forces to attack Ukraine.
According to Korszunau, around 113,000 Belarusians emigrated to Poland, where, in February this year, 130,000 of them were registered on Poland’s social security system (ZUS), compared with only 17,000 in 2020.
But this, he says, does not include the several dozen thousand Belarusians who are waiting for a permanent residence permit in Poland.
In Lithuania in February this year, 63,000 Belarusians had residence permits, and 48,000 were officially employed.
This is a 45,000-person increase from 2020, when almost 18,000 Belarusians lived in Lithuania.
Writing for the Center of New Ideas, where he now works, Korszunau also looked at Belarusians in other countries.
According to him, 6-8,000 Belarusians went to Germany, around 10-11,000 people went to Georgia, and approximately 20,000 emigrated to EU countries.
But in addition to going west, a large number emigrated to the east, with Russia being the main destination.
Korszunau said: “Due to the specificity of statistics and Belarusian-Russian relations, it is almost impossible to measure Belarusian emigration in this direction.”
“Even official structures in the same time interval may provide very different data on the number of Belarusians working in Russia.”
He added that the Belarusian authorities rarely publish data on the number of people who have emigrated from the country, and those who left for political reasons are referred to as ‘fugitives and enemies’.
Prior to Belarus’s 2020 presidential elections, Korszunau’s institute leaked data from a secret survey to the press, which showed, among other things, that support in the capital for Aleksandr Lukashenko was 24%.
It was also influenced by Russian aggression against Ukraine and Lukashenka’s support, which saw the country being made available for Russian forces to attack Ukraine.
According to Korszunau, around 113,000 Belarusians emigrated to Poland, where, in February this year, 130,000 of them were registered on Poland’s social security system (ZUS), compared with only 17,000 in 2020.
But this, he says, does not include the several dozen thousand Belarusians who are waiting for a permanent residence permit in Poland.
In Lithuania in February this year, 63,000 Belarusians had residence permits, and 48,000 were officially employed.
This is a 45,000-person increase from 2020, when almost 18,000 Belarusians lived in Lithuania.
Writing for the Center of New Ideas, where he now works, Korszunau also looked at Belarusians in other countries.
According to him, 6-8,000 Belarusians went to Germany, around 10-11,000 people went to Georgia, and approximately 20,000 emigrated to EU countries.
But in addition to going west, a large number emigrated to the east, with Russia being the main destination.
Korszunau said: “Due to the specificity of statistics and Belarusian-Russian relations, it is almost impossible to measure Belarusian emigration in this direction.”
“Even official structures in the same time interval may provide very different data on the number of Belarusians working in Russia.”
He added that the Belarusian authorities rarely publish data on the number of people who have emigrated from the country, and those who left for political reasons are referred to as ‘fugitives and enemies’.
Prior to Belarus’s 2020 presidential elections, Korszunau’s institute leaked data from a secret survey to the press, which showed, among other things, that support in the capital for Aleksandr Lukashenko was 24%.
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