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A Belarusian citizen who lived in Odesa and worked there as a translator has been detained for illegal stay in Ukraine. A court ordered that he be placed in a temporary holding facility for foreigners pending forced deportation, Radio Svaboda reports.
According to sources familiar with the case, the Belarusian, identified as Dzmitry K., arrived in Ukraine through Odesa airport and has not travelled to Belarus since.
The Odesa Regional Employment Centre issued his employers a permit to employ a foreign national valid from March 4, 2021, to March 23, 2024. In 2023, the permit was revoked. On this basis, the migration service annulled his residence permit.
In June 2024, the Belarusian was detained and cited for violating the rules governing the stay of foreigners in Ukraine. He was fined around $120. The court ordered Dzmitry to leave Ukraine for his country of origin or a third country. He neither paid the fine nor left the country.
On February 17 this year, Dzmitry was detained by officers of the regional police’s Strategic Investigations Department. The court ruled that there were no grounds preventing his forced deportation from Ukraine.
As the Belarusian did not have documents allowing him to legally remain in Ukraine, the court decided to place him for six months, until August 17, in a temporary holding facility for foreigners and stateless persons illegally present on Ukrainian territory, pending forced deportation. The validity of Dzmitry’s Belarusian passport expires in May this year.
Dzmitry’s lawyer has appealed the court’s decision.