In 2017, Human Constanta opened a free legal office for the protection of the rights of foreign citizens and stateless people in Belarus. Legal services are provided in two cities of Belarus: in Brest, covering requests from the city and the Brest region and Minsk, covering requests from the rest of the country. In 2021, despite the large-scale attacks on civil society in Belarus, we continued to advise foreigners and stateless people in difficult situations on the territory of Belarus for free.

In 2020, challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic and protests in Belarus, the consequences of which affected appeals in 2021, were added to the traditional range of issues on procedures for obtaining permanent and temporary residence permits, marriage registration
and employment.

In 2021, we also faced a new humanitarian crisis on the border of Belarus and the countries of the European Union (EU), which began in the summer of 2021 and is continuing at the time of writing this report.

This report is an overview of the activities of the free legal office, the specifics of the appeals and a description of the legislative and law enforcement problems that we faced in 2021.