Belarusian Border Guards Identify 142 Illegal Migration Routes Over Five Years
Reform.news Editorial Team · 5 November 2026, 13:55
https://reform.news/en/belarusian-border-guards-identify-142-illegal-migration-routes-over-five-years/Over the past five years, Belarusian border guards have identified and dismantled 142 illegal migration routes. More than 1,000 migrants, as well as 322 organizers and their accomplices, have been detained, the Prosecutor General’s Office press service reports.
The figures were announced at a roundtable discussion entitled “Improving Legal and Organizational Measures to Counter the Organization of Illegal Migration”, organized by the Prosecutor General’s Office Research and Practical Center for Strengthening the Rule of Law and Public Order. Representatives of the House of Representatives, the Supreme Court, the State Border Committee, the Interior Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, the Labor Ministry and the Education Ministry took part in the event.
Mikalai Bareika, head of a department at the State Border Committee, noted that while most migrants seeking to cross the border illegally previously travelled through Belarus from Russia, a scheme involving enrollment at Belarusian educational institutions is now used more frequently.
“The profile of people attempting to cross the state border illegally has changed. Previously, more than 95% of the illegal migrants identified were transiting through Belarus from Russia. Now, the mechanism of ‘legal’ migration through enrollment at educational institutions in our country is used more frequently. Some foreigners formally exercise their right to education but in practice use this mechanism to obtain legal grounds for entering and staying in Belarus, even though they do not intend to pursue their studies in full,” he said.
According to Leanid Dzenisenka, an adviser at the Education Ministry’s department, 2% of foreign students left their places of study between January and September 2026: 650 out of approximately 30,000 foreign students.
A representative of the Interior Ministry’s Department of Citizenship and Migration noted that 88 organizations involved in recruiting foreign nationals are currently listed in the relevant register.
Participants in the roundtable showed particular interest in the issue of classifying offenses under the Criminal Code article on organizing illegal migration, amid discrepancies between the academic interpretation of the provision and established law enforcement practice.
The discussion led participants to the following conclusions:
- Efforts to prevent illegal migration depend directly on coordinated cooperation with foreign partners, primarily countries that migrants seek to reach, as well as countries along transit routes;
- Timely information exchange and coordinated action by border services and law enforcement agencies are essential to preventing illegal migration, as is dismantling illegal transit routes, including those leading to European Union countries;
- Organized migration routes cannot be effectively countered without proper coordination of efforts.