by Maksim Makhankou, Vilnius University
Visiting the Occupation Museum in Riga, one tiny artifact might catch your eye —the passport of a citizen of the First Latvian Republic. What made this object unique is the fact that its owner, who fled his homeland due to Soviet occupation, used this passport until the collapse of the Soviet Union. Western countries did not recognize the occupation of the interwar Latvian Republic, and many refugees preserved their Latvian citizenship. This artifact signifies the tragedy and trauma of all refugees and victims of occupations and dictatorships.
It raises the questions of citizenship and documents in modern Europe against the background of the Russian-Ukrainian war and brutal dictatorship in Belarus.
Unfortunately, the instability and war generated many undocumented refugees and outcasts who lost their homes and were unprotected against different leviathans.
Russia pulled the lid off Pandora’s box in 2014, occupying Crimea. Russia forced the locals to accept Russian citizenship. Some people denied it, which resulted in the deprivation of their rights in their native Crimea. Especially the Crimean Tatars, the indigenous people of Crimea, suffered from the actions of the Russian administration. Even if people agreed to accept Russian citizenship, these Russian passports, issued on occupied Ukrainian territories, are not recognized in Western countries, which makes some people from occupied Ukrainian territories unprotected in Europe. Not everyone has an opportunity to apply for or renew their Ukrainian documents due to war hostilities.
The full-scale war broadened the seriousness of the problem. The hostilities spread to several Ukrainian regions, forcing many Ukrainians to flee and making them internally displaced persons and refugees. Many of them have some issues with their documents, depriving them of rights both in Ukraine and abroad. The troubles are related not only to passports but to other documents as well. Many Ukrainians have problems, for instance, with marriage certificates, university diplomas, vaccination cards, etc. This all makes their legalization and employment in the EU more onerous.
However, at least Ukrainians can rely on their diplomats to help them have some documents restored through Ukrainian embassies abroad. Meanwhile, Belarusian refugees, impacted by the authoritarian regime, do not even have this privilege. Belarusians who fled the country due to repressions after 2020 cannot go back to Belarus and renew or apply for crucial documents.
People deprived of rights in their motherland also become pariahs in other countries.
Unlike Ukrainians, these people cannot even receive assistance from their state because these authoritarian political regimes persecute them. Indeed, Lithuania and Poland significantly helped many Belarusian dissents, issuing humanitarian visas. Still, a lot of political prisoners from Belarus do not have these visas, fleeing the country with regular working visas. These people already have troubles with legalization in the EU due to a lack of documents. Moreover, European sanctions against Belarus primarily impact political refugees as it is now becoming more and more challenging to legalize their living status in the EU. Sanctions, which allegedly punish the dictatorial regime in Minsk, have an unintended impact on political dissenters from Belarus, who are already deprived of their rights in their homeland and cannot obtain support from the Belarusian state. These new European pariahs, unwanted both in Belarus and abroad, remind us of the worst and most cruel experiences of the 20th century.
- This blog is a part of a blog series written by the BAMSE Riga intensive course students. The blog series analyses the concept of resilience from five different viewpoints: democracy in crises, regional responses, social consequences, relevance of history politics and cultural approaches. This blog belongs to the social consequences part of the blog series. Read more about the blog series on Bamse News & Events website.