An unprecedented step: Lukashenko closes borders to ‘shrewd’ Belarusians who fled country during coronavirus pandemic

Like much of Europe, Belarus has closed its land boundaries to combat the spread of Covid-19. However, in an extraordinary move, President Alexander Lukashenko has ordered border guards to refuse entry even to its own citizens.

Speaking on Thursday at a government meeting about the coronavirus, Lukashenko revealed that Belarus would no longer accept people crossing the state’s frontiers, regardless of their passport.

"I have ordered the border troops to refuse entry to not only foreign nationals, but also those 'shrewd' Belarusians who left our country during this difficult time," Lukashenko said, with a hint of mockery. "We don't need them to bring the infection here, and it does not matter what passport they carry. They have gone to study or work there, let them."

Lukashenko had previously noted that Belarusian doctors who leave the country to work abroad would be prevented from "turning back."

"You will stay there and earn the money you've left your country for," he said.

The president's decision to refuse entry to Belarusian citizens goes against Article 30 of the country's constitution, which states that all citizens "shall have the right to move freely and choose their place of residence within the Republic of Belarus, to leave it and to return to it without hindrance." The right to return to the state of citizenship is also protected by the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Belarus closed its land borders to foreigners for the first time on November 1 "in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19," after months of downplaying the severity of the disease. In spring, when much of the world was locking down to prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed, Belarus kept functioning as normal. While the land border is now firmly shut, however, it is still possible to fly into Minsk National Airport.

The decision to close the borders is "not political," according to Lukashenko, but a response to the growth of Covid-19 across Europe, which he dubbed "the new so-called Spanish influenza."

"If we have closed our borders to those who are trying to enter our country from the West, it is because we see a huge increase in the incidence rate," the president said. "I am talking not only about the tests that show tens and hundreds of thousands of coronavirus cases but about real patients, especially in neighboring Poland."

According to official numbers, Belarus has had 103,295 cases of Covid-19, and 998 deaths.

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