The exiled Belarusian opposition has denied issuing the online forms and warned they may be part of an operation by President Aleksandr Lukashenko regime’s intelligence agency to collect dissidents’ personal data.
In recent weeks, ads promoting online questionnaires and applications for obtaining Belarusian passports allegedly issued by the Belarusian opposition’s government-in-exile have been popping up on Belarusian social media and YouTube channels.Last September, Lukashenko ordered Belarusian diplomatic missions to stop issuing passports to citizens living abroad.
The online passport forms ask applicants to provide detailed personal data, including their full name, date of birth, current address, country of residence, complete data from foreign government-issued ID and detailed information about family members.However, the recently advertised forms are fake and believed to be part of a data collection operation by Lukashenko’s intelligence services.
“Websites, social media pages, and even advertisements allegedly on behalf of the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus continue to appear on the Internet to collect data on citizens of Belarus living abroad,” the UTC’s foreign affairs office “We declare that at the moment, the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus, the Representation on Foreign Affairs, and the Office of Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya are NOT compiling any lists for obtaining a new national passport!”
“Any such ‘gathering’ should be considered a provocation by the regime's special services to gather information about Belarusians outside the country...”that the UTC is still in the process of creating a body responsible for collecting, processing and storing Belarusians' personal data.have deemed Lukashenko’s rule illegitimate, stating that Belarus’ August 2020 presidential elections were rigged.