57 Belarusians who are facing political persecution in their homeland, have already received visas in Latvia. Foreign Minister of the country Edgars Rinkevich spoke about this on the Riga TV24 channel, Delfi reports.
Riga is also considering applications of Belarusians for political asylum.
The Latvian government has allocated 200 000 euros for Belarusians who have suffered from repression in their country and for the support of Belarusian journalists.
Rinkevich predicts that the issue of European sanctions against Belarusian officials involved in falsifying presidential election results and violence against peaceful demonstrators will be resolved before September 21, when the next meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council will take place.
At the end of August the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia Edgars Rinkevich declared the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and 29 other high-ranking citizens of Belarus to be persona non grata. The same decisions were made by the foreign ministries of Estonia and Lithuania.
Mass protests against the results of the presidential elections, which took place on August 9, are still continuing in Belarus. Security officials are detaining protesters, as well as opposition leaders. The European Union demands that President Alexander Lukashenko release the detainees and respect the citizens' right to peaceful protest.
