17 political prisoners released in December 2025 have been granted international protection status in Poland

Today a meeting took place between the Deputy Head of the United Transitional Cabinet and NAM leader Pavel Latushka and the Head of the Office for Foreigners Tomasz Cytrynowicz.

The meeting was also attended by the head of the legal commission of the Coordination Council Mikhail Kirylyuk and representative of the Center for Belarusian Solidarity Volha Dobravolskaya.

The meeting discussed the following issues:

• legalization in Poland of 83 political prisoners who were released and deported to Ukraine in December 2025 and have decided to legalize their status in Poland.

• egalization of three released political prisoners who were deported to Lithuania on March 19 of this year and on March 21, with the consent of Polish authorities, entered Poland for subsequent legalization.

Tomasz Cytrynowicz informed Pavel Latushka that positive decisions on international protection in Poland have been issued for 17 released political prisoners, citizens of Belarus. The representative of the Polish agency also noted that efforts are being made to accelerate the legalization procedure for other released political prisoners whose documents are currently under review at the Office.

During the meeting, agreements were also reached on the priority consideration of legalization for three Belarusians who were deported by the Lukashenko regime in a group of 15 people to Lithuania and are planning to legalize their status in Poland.

Taking into account the problematic issues related to lengthy waiting times for legalization decisions and obtaining travel documents for Belarusian citizens, Tomasz Cytrynowicz noted that he constantly draws the attention of Polish regional governors to the particular situation of Belarusians who encounter problems with document validity periods while in Poland.

The representative of the Office for Foreigners stated that he would send a request to the governors of Poland to provide information on the status of processing applications from Belarusian citizens.

During the meeting it was also noted that the Office supports extending the validity period of travel documents to two years, though this matter falls within the competence of Polish legislators.

The meeting also touched upon the problematic issue of opening bank accounts for Belarusian citizens. It is planned that on March 26 Pavel Latushka will meet with the leadership of Poland's Financial Supervision Commission, with the participation of representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Finance of Poland, to seek ways out of the difficult situation.