Travelling to Belarus / the border

• Human rights groups usually advise checking yourself against the databases (wanted lists, 'extremist' lists, trials in absentia) and getting advice before you travel, e.g. from the BYSOL hotline. BYSOL is designated 'extremist' in Belarus, so contact it only from a device you will not take across the border. Not being listed guarantees nothing. If you have donated, subscribed or protested since 2020, it is safer not to go.
• Donations, subscriptions, comments, neighbourhood chats and protests since 2020, including abroad, are all grounds for detention.
• Phones are checked at the border almost every time. Refusing or travelling without a phone often means being turned back or checked harder, and an empty phone also raises questions. You need an ordinary phone with a safe history, prepared in advance. Spyware may be installed.
• People are detained at every crossing, including the Russian border; most often on arrival from Lithuania.
• Agree a check-in call with family in advance and keep your lawyer's contact on paper.

Designations of organisations in this guide: BYSOL Belarusian Solidarity Foundation (extremist in Belarus). Contacting them carries a risk: do not write from a phone that may be seized, and do not repost their materials.

current as of 25 September 2026. More: Viasna: risks of returning (extremist in Belarus); BGmedia: how phones are checked at the border; Free Belarus Center: how to check for a case (materials deemed 'extremist' in Belarus)

• A donation to an organisation on the 'extremist formations' list is treated as aiding extremism: up to 7 years in prison and being put on the 'extremist list'.
• Human rights groups usually advise against paying from Belarusian cards and accounts: such payments are easy to trace.
• Before travelling to Belarus, take an ordinary phone with a safe history, prepared in advance. Deleted subscriptions and chats are sometimes recovered, so remove them long before the trip.
• Check a fund's status against the Interior Ministry list: media, chats and aid initiatives are all designated 'extremist'.

current as of 25 September 2026. More: npr.by: liability for extremism in 2026; Interior Ministry: 'extremist formations' list