About 136,000 residents of Lithuania and Latvia entered the Vitebsk region visa-free in 2022

Since April 15, 2022, when the visa-free regime for citizens of Lithuania, Latvia (as well as persons with non-citizen status of Latvia) came into force in Belarus, until December 31, 135,970 people entered Belarus through the section of responsibility of the Polotsk Border Detachment at three checkpoints: Grigorovshchina, Urbany (Belarusian-Latvian border) and Vidzy (Belarusian-Lithuanian border), reported Denis Glebko, official representative of the Polotsk Border Detachment.

Among the foreigners who crossed the border, 72,990 were citizens of Latvia, 21,078 were stateless persons of Latvia, and 41,902 were citizens of Lithuania. Since the beginning of 2023, 787 residents of Lithuania and Latvia have already crossed the border, Denis Glebko informed:

- The largest number of border crossings occurred in the summer months – the holiday and vacation season. In September-October, there was a slight decrease compared to them, and in November-December, the passenger traffic dynamically increased again.

 

As a rule, most foreigners come to Belarus for recreation, medical and cosmetic services, which are cheaper and of higher quality in our country than in the Baltic neighboring countries. Trips for fuel and food products, excisable goods, and for the purpose of visiting the burial sites of close relatives are also common. When leaving, many of them share positive impressions of their stay in the "Blue-Eyed" (Belarus), and also complain about the extreme lack of official information from Belarus, access to which has been blocked in Lithuania and Latvia since the spring of last year.

Denis Glebko also reminded that for the convenience of entry for foreign citizens under the visa-free regime, a special resource has been created on the Internet portal of the State Border Committee of Belarus.

The section guarded by the Polotsk border group with Latvia and Lithuania is 272 km long.

"SB"