Belarusian journalist Andrei Mialeshka barred from re-entering Georgia after years of residency

Last night Andrei was return­ing to Geor­gia from Poland with his daugh­ter, but he was not allowed to enter the coun­try at the air­port in Kutaisi. The jour­nal­ist shared this on social media.

Andrei Mialesh­ka and his daugh­ter. Pho­to: Journalist’s Face­book page

Andrei Mialesh­ka has been liv­ing in Geor­gia for the past three years, as he faced polit­i­cal per­se­cu­tion in Belarus and was forced to leave the coun­try. Accord­ing to the jour­nal­ist, the Geor­gian bor­der guards did not explain the rea­son for deny­ing him entry into the coun­try.

The jour­nal­ist told Pozirk that he would be deport­ed to Poland on the next flight.

“I have 15 hours to find out why I was denied entry. I don’t under­stand any­thing in this doc­u­ment that says ‘oth­er rea­sons to deny entry,’” Mialesh­ka said.

Doc­u­ments issued to Andrei Mialesh­ka at Kutaisi Airport. Pho­to: Journalist’s Face­book page

Doc­u­ments issued to Andrei Mialesh­ka at Kutaisi Airport. Pho­to: Journalist’s Face­book page

The jour­nal­ist also says that he and his daugh­ter have been locked in a room and their pass­ports con­fis­cat­ed, so he can’t apply for polit­i­cal asy­lum, which requires an iden­ti­ty doc­u­ment.

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists is close­ly mon­i­tor­ing the sit­u­a­tion. This is not the first case when Belaru­sians, known for their pro-democ­ra­cy posi­tion, were not allowed to enter Geor­gia. Civ­il soci­ety con­nects such actions of the Geor­gian author­i­ties with the rap­proche­ment of the Geor­gian polit­i­cal course with Rus­sia.