MINSK, 10 October (BelTA) – On 7 October Israeli migration authorities denied entry to 11 Belarusians, who came to Tel Aviv aboard a Belavia flight. Israel has denied entry to 18 Belarusian citizens at the border within less than two weeks in October, BelTA learned from the Facebook page of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The post reads: “Our citizens, who were on their way to resorts, to meet with friends and family members, have to spend days in temporary detention centers waiting for an opportunity to fly home. The reasons for denying entry to them that we know of contain not a single actual violation. We actively support international efforts to fight illegal migration and respect the sovereign right of nations to reasonably restrict entry to their territories. But this situation is unprecedented.”
“Belarus is no donor of illegal migrants. Our ratio of issued Schengen visas per capita to the number of refusals is the world's lowest. It confirms Belarusians are law-abiding. The Republic of Belarus does not have such problems with any other country. This is why the Israeli ambassador to Belarus has been summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs today to receive a protest. We agreed to sign the visa-free travel agreement with Israel in order to facilitate and simplify mutual contacts of the citizens of our countries. However, actions of the Israeli side discredit the entire process. The practice of denying entry to Belarusian citizens has reached a massive scale and is fundamentally unacceptable for us.”
Belarus is intent on continuing the dialogue and looking for ways to resolve the problems while definitely taking into account each other's interests. “Certain understanding has been secured today. At the same time as the dialogue proceeds, we would like to once again draw attention of the Belarusian Sports and Tourism Ministry, travel agencies, tour agents, and citizens to the recommendations the Ministry of Foreign Affairs published on 18 July 2019 for those who intend to visit Israel,” the source reads.
