In Cyprus, Belarusians have been given the opportunity to renew their residence permits with an expired passport. But the problem itself has not gone away: with expired passports, people remain effectively “tied” to the island and face bank account freezes, loss of access to medical care, lose the ability to rent housing and to work legally.
The head of the “Democratic Embassy of Belarus in Cyprus,” Alesia Parkhomenka, is doing hard, meticulous work to achieve a systemic solution to the problem of expired passports for Belarusian citizens. Thanks to her efforts, important steps in this direction have already been achieved.
After the falsification of the presidential elections in August 2020, mass protests began in Belarus. The authorities responded with brutal repression, including killings, torture, arrests of tens of thousands of people, and abuse. This led to the emigration of hundreds of thousands of Belarusian citizens out of fear of repression and persecution.
The dictatorial Lukashenka regime, fearing the consolidation of Belarusians abroad, regularly uses Jesuitical repressive methods against emigrants, including in absentia sentences, Interpol requests, and confiscation of property, to intimidate dissenters abroad. Pressure is also exerted through relatives and economic restrictions.
In September 2023, Alexander Lukashenka, in order to put pressure on the diaspora, signed Decree No. 278, which banned the issuance, exchange, and renewal of passports of Belarusian citizens at diplomatic missions and consulates abroad. Now this can be done only on the territory of Belarus, where many cannot travel due to the threat of arrest and torture. Belarusians who have left risk being left with expired documents, which makes them illegal abroad: it becomes impossible to obtain a residence permit, a visa, or employment.
European countries are addressing the problem of the ban on issuing Belarusian passports abroad by granting forced emigrants temporary protection, humanitarian visas, and accelerated asylum procedures. This makes it possible to legalize stay without Belarusian documents in some countries.
Several thousand Belarusian emigrants live in Cyprus, whose passports will soon expire, which will make them illegal, with all the accompanying problems.
Alesia Parkhomenka has become the voice of the Belarusian diaspora in Cyprus, who not only brings this problem to the authorities, but methodically and persistently solves it through dialogue with Cypriot agencies and European institutions. This is invisible, but no less hard work — letters, meetings, negotiations, explanations, attempts to prevent human tragedies with the help of bureaucratic procedures, regulations, and decisions.
The most vulnerable in this situation are newborn children of Belarusians, who, through the fault of the regime, find themselves without the possibility of obtaining a national document abroad.
Alesia has already managed to do a lot: the authorities of Cyprus decided to renew residence permits even with an expired national passport.
Belarusians are sincerely grateful to Cyprus for this step. For many families, it became a real salvation and made it possible to maintain legal status. But this is still not a final solution: an expired passport continues to limit mobility and access to basic services, which means the problem remains.
Parkhomenka emphasizes: we are talking about people who work honestly, pay taxes, and want to be part of Cypriot society. According to the community’s estimates, about 80% of Belarusians in Cyprus are highly qualified specialists with salaries of 3,500 euros and above. These are engineers, IT specialists, analysts, managers — people who create added value, support the economy, and do not ask for privileges — they ask for a working mechanism to get out of an artificially created “passport dead end.”
In September of last year, Alesia Parkhomenka sent a letter to the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola. In it, she in detail set out the essence of the “passport dead end” for Belarusians in Cyprus and asked for assistance in finding a solution — together with the Cypriot authorities and European institutions.
Alesia Parkhomenka’s letter to Roberta Metsola:
«Dear President Metsola, good day
My name is Alesia Parkhomenka, and I represent the Democratic Embassy of Belarus in Cyprus — an initiative that speaks on behalf of the Belarusian community on the island.
We warmly welcome your visit to Cyprus and greatly appreciate your ongoing attention to human rights and freedoms in Belarus. On behalf of our diaspora, we would like to draw your attention to a serious humanitarian and legal problem affecting not only Belarusian adults, but also newborn Belarusian children living in Cyprus.
As you may know, following Presidential Decree No. 278 in 2023, the Lukashenka regime halted the issuance and renewal of Belarusian passports abroad. Belarusian embassies no longer accept passport applications from citizens residing outside the country, including in cases where a passport has been lost, damaged, run out of pages, or simply needs to be renewed.
As a result, a large group of Belarusian citizens in Cyprus are unable to restore or obtain their primary identity documents. This affects both newborn children and adults. People are effectively left in a state of complete lack of documentation: they cannot renew their legal status, cannot travel, and cannot resolve passport-related matters either in Belarus or abroad.
We would like to stress very clearly that Cyprus bears absolutely no responsibility for this situation.
The authorities of Cyprus are doing their best to help us in this situation. They have allowed Belarusians with expired passports to apply for residence permits, and we are grateful for this step.
However, unfortunately, this has not resolved all the problems.
It is entirely the result of deliberate actions by the authoritarian regime in Belarus, which has deprived its citizens of the ability to receive documents abroad. Cyprus has found itself confronted with an unexpected and unprecedented situation that no existing administrative procedure was ever designed to address.
The situation is further aggravated by the fact that most of these people cannot apply for international protection, as doing so would result in the loss of their current highly qualified employment. Many Belarusians in Cyprus work in key and responsible positions, and entering the asylum process automatically strips them of the right to continue working. For families, this creates not only legal uncertainty but also economic risk, potentially leaving them without a means of livelihood.
For many Belarusians — including children — access to a travel document or similar temporary document issued by Cyprus is therefore not merely an administrative convenience, but a matter of safety and the preservation of a dignified life. Such a solution could protect people from becoming undocumented and allow them to continue living legally, stably, and securely in the country they have chosen as their new home.
Considering that similar mechanisms already exist in several EU member states, we respectfully ask you to support the possibility of discussing such an approach during your visit to Cyprus. This would enable Cyprus to provide humane and proportionate assistance to those who cannot obtain national documents through no fault of their own, but solely due to the actions of an authoritarian regime.
We would be grateful for any attention you can give to this matter, and we remain ready to provide additional information and specific cases.
BR, Alesia Parkhomenka
Democratic Embassy of Belarus in Cyprus».
After some time, a reply came from the office of the President of the European Parliament, which gives hope to many Belarusians in Cyprus.
«Dear Ms Parkhomenka,
Thank you for reaching out to President Metsola and for providing all information.
Please be informed that we will raise the issue with our Cypriot counterparts.
Let me also assure you that the European Parliament has been always standing in full solidarity with the people of Belarus. In our April 2025 resolution we have called for an EU-wide legal support and protection for exiled Belarusians by simplifying procedures for obtaining visas, resident permits and provisional IDs for individuals made stateless by extraterritorial persecution.
With regards,
Sylwia KOSINSKA
Diplomatic Advisor
European Parliament
PRESIDENT’S OFFICE».
Today, the Belarusian community in Cyprus lives in a mode of “semi-legality.” The decision to renew residence permits with an expired passport became an unprecedented act of humanity on the part of the authorities of Cyprus. But it does not return a full life to people, and thousands remain hostages of a dictatorial regime that uses documents as an instrument of punishment and pressure.
Cyprus has shown that it is capable of hearing people and responding to their requests. The next step is to make this decision systemic, so that honest taxpayers, families with children, and highly qualified specialists do not end up in a semi-legal position. People did not break the law; they are deprived of documents not by their own will and cannot safely return to Belarus to obtain new documents.
The letter to Roberta Metsola and the response received confirm: Brussels sees and recognizes this problem. This means that the necessary procedure that will return to Belarusians the right to a full life in the EU will be found.