Antifake / Factcheck

06 лютага

Welcome to Belarus. What does ONT TV keep silent about in the visa-free travel news?

Since the beginning of 2024, the number of guests from Europe has halved compared to the last year, the Weekly Top Fake team found out.

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Fake appearance date: 29.01.2024
The state-run Belarusian TV channel ONT reported the number of foreigners coming visa-free to Belarus. The news was released on January 29 under the headline “Welcome to Belarus”.

“Belarus is open for guests. Since the beginning of the year, more than 15 thousand EU citizens have visited our country without visas. Lithuanians made up the majority — more than 8.5 thousand. In total, since the beginning of the visa-free regime, more than 800 thousand foreigners have come to us under the simplified system,” it was reported on the news.

Indeed, the State Border Committee of the Republic of Belarus published such figures. However, TV channel ONT has been silent about the trend being negative in comparison to the same period in 2023. Thus, nowadays Lithuanian citizens coming to Belarus are almost three times fewer, there are one and a half times fewer visitors from Latvia, and 10% fewer Poles.

Since the beginning of 2024, the number of guests from Europe has halved compared to the last year, the Weekly Top Fake team found out.