Schengen visa. File photoMINSK, July 31The director of the Belarus sanatorium in Druskininkai, Lithuania, Ilya Epifanov, said that the institution cannot accept sick children from Belarus for rehabilitation because Vilnius does not issue visas. «At the beginning of the year, we accepted children, despite the fact that in the Republic of Lithuania quarantine was declared and there were certain restrictions precisely with crossing the border, with the stay of foreign citizens in Lithuania. We accepted children from Belarus to the sanatorium for treatment and rehabilitation. In two months of this year, we received 160 children. And we were ready to continue to accept children for rehabilitation. But at one point, when we applied for permission to treat children in our sanatorium, we received a refusal from the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry,» the director of the sanatorium told ONT TV channel.
The head of the Latvian Foreign Ministry called on the EU to ban the issuance of tourist visas to RussiansHe noted that the Lithuanian authorities «justified their refusal by the outbreak of hostilities on the territory of Ukraine.» “At the moment, we cannot accept children, because the Lithuanian side has decided to refuse to issue visas to citizens of the Republic of Belarus wishing to visit Lithuania. We recently discussed this situation in the mayor’s office of the city of Druskininkai, and found understanding in this process. The mayor’s office appealed to the president of the Republic of Lithuania, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to the Ministry of Health with a request … to make a decision so that sick children and disabled children from the Republic of Belarus can receive visas and come to Lithuania for treatment and rehabilitation in our sanatorium,» Epifanov continued. He noted that The administration of the sanatorium is waiting to see what the reaction will be. “In addition, we ourselves turned to the Foreign Ministry with a request to consider the issue and allow visas to be issued for sick children and disabled children who need to undergo treatment and rehabilitation in our sanatorium. We even cited figures that we are ready to receive about 200 patients a month children and about 50 disabled children from Belarus for treatment and rehabilitation,” said Epifanov. visas for RussiansAccording to him, at present the sanatorium works thanks to the reception of commercial clients, including those from the EU, the USA and the UK. At the end of 2020, the accounts of the sanatorium were frozen by the Scandinavian bank Swedbank due to sanctions imposed against the authorities of Belarus. In July last year, the government of Belarus determined the new founder of the Belarus sanatorium in Lithuania, which fell under European sanctions, it was the Republican Center for Health Improvement and Sanatorium-Resort Treatment of the Population. In November 2021, the authorities of Belarus reported that after a long break, the sanatorium resumed accepting Belarusian children for recovery.
