Sleepless In Brest

Not only elections but also the enumeration.

It's just a vacation, to put it simply. Now everyone will go and come back. Well, think about it, almost one and a half thousand cars are in the queue to leave Belarus for Poland – these are just schoolchildren with their parents going. On a tour, of course. Walk around Warsaw – and back.

I agree that the peak of traffic jams at the border coincided with the holidays. But, for example, on October 24, it was an ordinary working Thursday, the children were studying, and the parents were going to work. Nevertheless, 800 cars stood in a queue to leave Belarus. And on Wednesday – 500. And on October 31, when it was time to turn around and go back, because the holidays were about to end, there were more than 1,200 cars in the queue.

Whenever I open the Border Committee website to see what the exit queue is now, I try to imagine how many of those in the queue will come back. Are they really on business, on vacation, on vacation – or still in another life, or for exploration (as it is with work, housing, schools), or to ask for asylum? Holidays are a great explanation, quite logical and is plain to see. But are Belarusian parents really so harsh that they are ready to keep their own child for two days in a car at the border just for a short walk?

If it's the holidays, it's really bad. Previously, parents of junior schoolchildren were happy to send them to school camp not on vacation in the middle of the school year to go to work and not worry, and high school students were just left at home – they will find something to do, and will still be grateful that no one touches them for at least a week. And if now everyone really leaves the country for a few days, and half of the holidays are ready to spend in queues at the border, it means that it is unbearable.

The Montenegrin Pristanishte Foundation has the Sleep in Silence program for Ukrainian volunteers. Many Ukrainians did not leave the country in 2022, but became volunteers and worked endlessly, without rest, to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The coordinators of the fund then decided that it was necessary to give these people the opportunity to break away from the war for a short time, recover and exhale. The Sleep in Silence is the name of the program in the internal language Pristanishte. When the coordinators were just starting to think about how to help Ukrainian volunteers, they called them and asked: how can we help, what would you like better? And the volunteers answered with one voice: Sleep in Silence." No sirens, no alarms, no explosions. So, all these many hours and even many days of traffic jams at the border is the Sleep in Silence program that Belarusians arrange for themselves and their loved ones.

Sleep in silence, without fear that in the morning the security forces may break down the door because of the smiley face placed somewhere in the wrong place. Walk around the peaceful city without shying away from police cars. Leaving the house without looking into the yard in advance in search of suspicious cars. Open the mailbox without fear of finding a summon there. Enter your housing without thinking that it would be good to throw a grenade there first for reliability. Just to breathe. To joy. Sleeping without sleeping pills. At least a week, at least two days, at least a day. And to give your children the same opportunity to fall asleep without thinking that someone may come for their parents. And at the same time, of course, to look at life in that completely different country, because it is impossible to live for years in anxiety and stress.

After the Balkan wars following the breakup of Yugoslavia, only 30% of the refugees returned to their countries of origin. In Ukraine, the government recently approved a strategy for demographic development until 2040, and it turned out that the country cannot do without labor migrants – for the same reason. Ukrainians are well aware that a smaller part of those who left in 2022 will return after the war not even considering all of them. Director of the Institute of Demography and Social Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Ella Libanova believes that Ukraine will need to attract at least 300.000 migrants annually. These are cold numbers used by scientists, not politicians.

And how many Belarusians will return after the fall of the regime? Of course, at first there will be monstrous traffic jams at the borders again, only now for entry into Belarus. But too many will come to walk under White-Red-White flags through the streets of their cities with a victorious march, hug their loved ones, go to Narach or Braslau Lakes, take a walk in their favorite parks. And then – sorry, friends, but I have a mortgage, paychecks, a raise next month, children are at the school there, so wait a year for a vacation. Sleep in Silence - it will be about Belarus: relax, not being distracted by business calls, not rushing to work, not puzzling over a new project.

And the longer the dictatorship lasts, the stronger the social and labor ties of those who left with new countries will be. So after the liberation of Belarus, we will have to hold not only free elections, but also a population census. In the meantime, an easy road and good border guards to you who are sleepless in Brest.

Iryna Khalip, especially for Charter97.org

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