MINSK, 9 August (BelTA) – Belarus denied entry to 177 people, including 29 Ukrainian citizens who flew in the country via National Airport Minsk and could not explain the purpose of their trip, BelTA learned from the State Border committee.
In National Airport Minsk 29 citizens of Ukraine aged between 20-30 cited holidays and family visits as the purpose of their arrival in Belarus. However, as border officers asked more questions, most of them stumbled and gave the names of fake people as hosting parties. “When we separated them and started questioning they did not know either the names of relatives or where they were going to go. They all gave one telephone number,” Chairman of the State Border Committee Anatoly Lappo said.
The decision to deny entry to Belarus of the afore-mentioned citizens of Ukraine was made in compliance with Article 30 of the law on legal status of foreign nationals and stateless people.
Out of 177 citizens 48 provided untrue information about visa. The stay of 57 people contradicted the country's national security interests. 25 people were denied entry as they did not have sufficient amount of money to cover the expenses in the country. The border guards had grounds to assume that 47 people would evade leaving the country. 25 citizens produced invalid documents.
The people who were mostly denied entry were citizens from the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Poland. 63 people refused to enter the country as they were passing border control. According to Anatoly Lappo, four ultras-fans from Poland tried to enter Belarus through the Privalka border checkpoint on the Belarusian-Lithuanian border.
All in all, about 21,000 people crossed the Belarusian border for the past 24 hours, of them more than 5,000 through National Airport Minsk.
