Why are Belarusians willing to stand at the border for days on end just to breathe the air of freedom?

If you've never stood in line at the Schengen Zone border, you're not Belarusian!

Just kidding.

But there's a grain of truth in every joke.

We used to (and still do) love taking trips to neighboring countries. Some went to shop, some to visit relatives, and others just for the sake of it: to hang out and breathe in the air of freedom.

As J-Mors sang, “Some people have a Lithuanian visa and it’s Friday.”

Over the past few years, our love of travel has only grown stronger. There are many reasons for this, and you know them.

The road calls to us so insistently that we're willing to stand at the border for days on end.

And while we stand there, moving at a snail’s pace, and as we hand our documents to an indifferent official at the window, and as we undergo a humiliating search of our belongings or an even more humiliating conversation with some person in plain clothes, a simple thought inevitably comes to mind.

What the hell, anyway?

Why does it have to be such a huge hassle just to drive 180 kilometers to Vilnius? What makes the people on the other side of the border posts better than us?

After all, before all that nightmare at the border, we still had to figure out how to get a Schengen visa. And given our country’s status, that’s what you might call a real challenge.

And anyone who’s as old as I am will remember that there used to be another step—a stamp in your passport called an “authorization to travel abroad.” It was one of the remnants of the Soviet past, which, thank God, we got rid of fairly quickly.

Here's what I mean.

If you really think about it, borders are a human invention. Objectively speaking, they don’t exist. And this is, of course, most evident in the European Union. For example, in the town of Barle, the border between the Netherlands and Belgium runs right through a café.

And if, out of boredom, you were to read the Declaration of Human Rights, you would find that Article 13 states the following:

“1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and to choose their place of residence within the borders of each state.

2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including their own, and to return to their own country.”

So what does that mean? Was all this suffering for nothing? Don't we—just like everyone else on the planet—not only have the right to move about, but also the right to live wherever we want?

So what about all that infrastructure—border crossings, fences, and border guards?

So what about residence permits, citizenship, Polish Card, and visas?

After all, it turns out that all of this directly or indirectly violates human rights—our rights (because Belarusians are people, too).

But we're used to it!

There's a lot more in that declaration that we don't have.

These include the protection of the law, the presumption of innocence, the inviolability of property, the prohibition of torture, and, ultimately, freedom of belief and the public expression of those beliefs.

Let me repeat: we're used to this.

But a very amusing incident recently occurred in the developed Western world.

The fact is that large numbers of undocumented migrants are trying to enter the United Kingdom. In 2022 alone, 45,000 people crossed the English Channel.

People who want a better life in England will need to be housed somewhere, fed, and given some kind of benefits. Because they’re people too (just like Belarusians).

And the British came up with an interesting move. They passed a law allowing them to send illegal immigrants to Rwanda.

Progressive Westerners were genuinely alarmed. This is because there are many people in Western society who have read the declaration. And they believe that the British government is acting in an inhumane manner.

The British authorities, for their part, say that Rwanda is a normal country, too. Almost like the United Kingdom. It’s even warmer there.

And while they’re arguing over whether it’s right to send people who want to live in the United Kingdom to the heart of Africa, repression, war, and lawlessness continue right in the heart of Europe. Children are being deported, peaceful cities are being bombed, and people are being beaten to death with sledgehammers… It seems we’ve even gotten used to it…

It's a strange thing, this Declaration of Human Rights. It seems like everything is written correctly, but in reality, nothing works…

And yes, if anyone is thinking of going to England illegally—keep in mind that you might end up in sunny Rwanda.