U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has released a Belarusian asylum seeker who was being held at a detention center in Leavenworth, Kansas. FOX4 reported on the case. Katsiaryna Bartko was released after her health deteriorated.
Bartko had cancer when she was young. Her thyroid and parathyroid glands were removed, so she must take hormone medication and calcium for the rest of her life in strictly prescribed doses. She came to the U.S. on a student visa in 2022 and applied for asylum, citing persecution by the Belarusian authorities. According to her partner, Dzmitry Shyshou, she took part in protests in Belarus and spoke publicly against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. After she left the country, Belarusian security officers visited her parents and asked where she was.
Throughout her detention, her relatives sought to draw attention to Bartko’s condition. In August, Dzmitry Shyshou said that after she was detained in Florida, she did not receive the medication she needed and was hospitalized three times in four days. On June 18, she was transferred to the CoreCivic immigration detention center in Leavenworth, Kansas. Since then, she had not been examined by an endocrinologist. ICE and CoreCivic, the company operating the center, said at the time that the Belarusian woman was under constant medical supervision and receiving the necessary care.
Over the past weekend, her health deteriorated to the point that she had to be hospitalized. The woman is receiving treatment at the University of Kansas Hospital. A decision was made to release her.
After completing treatment, she will be able to return to Miami, provided she is subject to GPS monitoring. A hearing in her immigration case is scheduled for the end of the month.
