Half Million “Parasites” Can Block Decree

Do not rush to pay to the regime.

Since December 1, the database of “parasites” has started to operate in Belarus. According to Labor Minister Iryna Kastsevich, 500 thousand people have been included into it.

And already on December 8, the Council of Ministers of Belarus issued a decree that significantly expands information about citizens who are in the database of “unemployed in the economy” due to the data on children and students in institutions controlled by the Ministry of Education.

Why they needed to do this, what could be the consequences and how to deal with it? Leanid Sudalenka, the legal labor inspector of the independent trade union of the radio-electronic industry (REP) in the Homel region, answers Charter97.org's questions.

– Under the new rules, in addition to the data on the “parasites” themselves, the identification number and date of birth of the child, the date of deprivation of parental rights and restoration of parental rights are entered into the database. What for?

– I think in this way the authorities decided to keep track of the families that fall into the so-called “socially dangerous situation,” (SDS) according to Lukashenka’s decree No. 18. It turned out that this decree was not enough; they decided to go even further. They decided to add the families of those who are “not engaged in the economy” to the “socially dangerous” category. Such a definition itself is already absurd, a legal dictionary in our country does not contain such a term.

In fact, this means strengthening of control over the families, where at least one of the parents fell under the renewed decree on “parasites.” And, as we remember, parasite commissions can send such citizens to a Medical-Labour Centre even without judicial sanction.

It is very serious. Any restriction of liberty, regardless of which category a citizen belongs to – SDS, unemployed, not engaged in the economy, – can occur only by a court decision. Lukashenka’s decree does not give the right to send people to a Medical-Labour Centre without judicial sanction.

And this gives us opportunities for struggle. We in the REP Trade Union will fight this. We will bury the courts under claims and raise the question: why does the state intervene this way in every single family?

– The government gave instructions to the Ministry of Education to develop a unified automated database of students in order to integrate it with the database of “parasites.” What will this mean in practice?

– It is difficult to seek common sense where there is none. Perhaps, this way they want to further strengthen the control over the families of those who are “not engaged in the economy.” Therefore, just in case, I want to repeat to the authors of the decree and the decree supplementing it: this is called privacy intervention, and such actions are prohibited by our Constitution.

Issuing such decrees, the government is preparing the ground for resistance. The more officials intervene in the lives of families in this way, the more fightbacks will follow. In each case, we will intervene, protect people and prove that such government actions are illegal.

Yes, Kastsevich has counted half a million of “parasites.” But what about children and schoolchildren? I find it difficult to answer whether the authorities have any logic. After all, half a million people are a huge army that can block the effect of the decree. Why, then, they also collect data on children? To paralyze this decree even faster?

– The REP Trade Union, together with human rights defenders, has adopted an official statement demanding the repeal of the decree on “parasites”. How to achieve this?

– The leader of our trade union, Hennadz Fiadynich, has clearly stated that the REP Trade Union helped and will help everyone who got into the “parasite” base. Let everyone turn to us – there’s half a million of us, and together we can figure out what to do so that this decree cannot work.

As Hennadz Fiadynich has correctly said – do not rush to pay. As the experience of 2017 shows, those, who rushed to pay the state, lost. As a result, the people, who started to resist, won: boycott, ignore, litigate, go to rallies.

I am convinced that this time it will happen too: the mechanism launched by the authorities in the updated decree on “parasites” will not work. I'm just sure of it: together we can block this illegal decree.

Therefore, I say to all people: boycott, do not pay, resist. Contact us for help: the REP Trade Union will work with each person from the half-million army of those temporarily “not engaged in the economy.”