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Belarus Deports Two Polish NGO Workers


Another Fundacja Institutum Orientalium worker, Magdalena Kalinowska, was forced to leave on November 16.
Another Fundacja Institutum Orientalium worker, Magdalena Kalinowska, was forced to leave on November 16.
BERASTSE, Belarus -- Belarusian officials in the western city of Berastse have deported a second Polish woman working for a nongovernmental organization, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports.

Belarusian border guards forced Kinga Ksionzek, who worked at the Polish-based NGO Fundacja Institutum Orientalium, to board a train bound for Poland without any official explanation, telling her only that she had to leave Belarus because her presence in the country was unwanted.

Earlier on November 16, another Fundacja Institutum Orientalium employee, Magdalena Kalinowska, left the eastern city of Mahileu in Belarus by car. Kalinowska had been in Mahileu since August, helping Belarusian entrepreneurs apply for training programs in Poland.

On November 11, the Migration Department in Mahileu summoned her and told her that she had been found guilty of violating the law on foreigners' residency. She was ordered to leave Belarus by November 16.

Belarusian migration officials said Kalinowska had been living in an apartment different from the one where she was officially registered, which they called a "serious violation."

The Fundacja Institutum Orientalium is a Polish NGO engaged in developing relations between the countries of Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and Asia.

About 4 percent of Belarus's 9.7 million people are ethnic Poles.

Read more in Belarusian here

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