The European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) has published an extensive report on the human rights situation in Belarus, covering the period from January 2025 to April 2026. The document records what has long been known but is now systematically documented for official use: Lukashenko’s regime has turned repression into routine practice.
Following the presidential elections in January 2025, in which Lukashenko secured a seventh consecutive term, the authorities continued the systematic persecution of participants in the 2020 protests. Thousands of people have been sentenced on politically motivated charges or forced into exile.
The criteria for persecution are defined very broadly. Criminal prosecution applies to criticism of the authorities, support for Ukraine, or any links to organizations labeled as extremist. According to the report’s authors, legislation is being used as a tool to suppress any form of dissent.
The judicial system functions as an instrument of political repression: trials are held in absentia or behind closed doors. Police carry out large-scale surveillance of the population inside the country and of the Belarusian diaspora abroad. Citizens returning to Belarus are subjected to systematic searches, phone checks, and interrogations at border checkpoints.
Repression has long gone beyond individual responsibility. The punitive apparatus extends to the relatives of activists and political prisoners: they face searches, interrogations, and property confiscation.
The EUAA report serves as an official reference document for EU migration authorities when assessing asylum applications. The fact that 71% of applicants from Belarus receive protection speaks more clearly than any diplomatic wording.
