"What Does the Departure Have to Do With It?"

Belarusians who work abroad comment on the ban on leaving the country.

The information that, from December 20, due to COVID-19, Belarus temporarily closes its land borders for departure stirred up the bynet. Tut.by decided to talk to Belarusians who had left to study or work abroad before this innovation and to ask how they perceived this news and whether it would somehow affect their lives.

In the resolution on the temporary ban, there is an exception for Belarusians who work or study abroad. Once every six months, they will still be able to leave their homeland by car or, say, by bus. As for the planes, there are no restrictions for them, as well as for other citizens of the country.

- Have you seen how much a plane ticket from Moscow to Minsk costs? Soon you will have to choose: go on vacation or go home, - jokes Yana Syshchanka. - It seems to me that these are double standards. Can't you bring the coronavirus on the plane?

Yana is from Babruisk; her mother and grandfather live here. Two and a half years ago, the girl moved to Moscow, works as an office manager in an IT company. Before the situation with COVID-19, she often traveled to Belarus. "When I missed my family, I took a day off on Monday without any problems and rushed to my mother," she says. Due to the coronavirus situation, she didn't go home for a year, but she still plans to fly there for the New Year holidays.

- I have an official contract at work, but I don't have a residence permit, so due to the restrictions that Russia introduced in the spring in connection with covid, the only way for me to leave Moscow for Minsk is by plane," the interlocutor describes the situation. - The Belarusian travel restriction will not affect me in any way now. But my friends who have a residence permit in Russia and who calmly traveled by car to their relatives in Belarus will now face a problem.

Yana says she is surprised why Belarusians who work abroad will be allowed to leave the country by land transport exactly once every six months, and not two or, for example, three.

- I have an elderly grandfather. Suppose if I had a residence permit, how would I properly dispose of this attempt? - she asks. - It turns out that if I use it, and then my grandfather suddenly ends up in the hospital, and I don't have money for the plane, I won't even be able to visit him?

- Any restriction crushes morally, - Uladzislau Abakumenka, a Minsk resident who works in Moscow, is arguing. - I planned to visit my relatives in March, bought a ticket in advance, but shortly before my departure, Russia closed its borders. I waited for the summer, hoped the situation would be resolved, but no. Then I was hoping for autumn - again, nothing. Today I read the Belarusian news and understood: everything is only getting more complicated.

"Before this news appeared, no one was going anywhere, but now, everyone urgently wanted to go somewhere."

Most of tut.by's interlocutors, who study or work abroad, say that for them, the sensational decree is not so much a matter of restricting movement as of money. "It's just a shame for Belarusians who cannot afford a plane ticket," Viktar, a Belarusian living in Norway, does not hide his emotions.

"Before that, I tried to use trains and buses, but now I'll have to fly," says Iryna, who studies in Warsaw as a photographer. - Of course, a plane ticket costs 3-4 times more, but I still plan to visit Belarus about once every two months.

But Iryna's mother, the girl continues, plans will have to be adjusted.

- Mom has a tourist visa, and we discussed that she might come to visit me, but now she will definitely not come, - the interlocutor smiles. - Only if she decides to fly.

- I just called my mother; she says that this innovation is a drop among all the events that are happening now in Belarus, - Katsiaryna Hrachova, who works in Krakow, says. - She and dad, although they are travelers, are not worried about this situation. They are sure that soon everything will return to normal.

As an example, Katsiaryna continues, her mother cited the recent situation when, due to COVID-19, neighboring countries "closed" from Poland.

- Now in Poland, there are about 12 thousand cases of coronavirus per day, and then there was a jump to 28 thousand, - recalls the interlocutor. - But then no one closed Poland for leaving, just if you go to some neighboring country, you have to be there for 10 days on quarantine. Of course, I want to believe my mother and think that all this is temporary, but the question is, when will this "temporarily" end? In Europe, after all, if any restrictions are introduced due to COVID-19, then you understand: the process is finite. At first, the coronavirus was not noticed in Belarus, and now the country is being closed. Such extremes are alarming.

Katsiaryna and Iryna believe that there is a political moment in this whole situation.

- As far as I understand, as a Belarusian who works in Poland, I can enter Belarus by any means of transport and as much as I want, - says the girl. - But why, then, can I leave the country by land transport only once every six months?

- Why was there such a stir because of this news?

- Because this is a restriction, - Iryna shares her opinion. - I look at what people write in different chats. Before this news appeared, no one was going anywhere, but now everyone urgently wanted to go somewhere. It seems to me that a person can decide on his own whether he is ready to go somewhere and serve a 10-day quarantine or not. Plus, Internet users are discussing that, if this was only related to COVID-19, then it would be logical to close the borders for entry. What does the departure have to do with it?