Kiev
Ukraine received its first three asylum seekers this week, and the government has no idea what to do with them. Long criticized for its poor human-rights record, rigged elections, corruption-ridden government, and dismal economy, Ukraine is used to seeing its own citizens seek asylum in the West. But this week, three history teachers from neighboring Belarus applied for asylum in Ukraine. The three said Belarusian police had interrogated and beaten them because of their criticism of the rigidly authoritarian, Soviet-style president. Valentyna Subotenko of Ukraine’s Citizenship Department told Radio Free Europe that the government is researching the laws on how to handle an asylum application. In the meantime, the three men are sleeping in a tent village in Kiev along with hundreds of Ukrainian coal miners, who came to the capital to protest dangerous working conditions and low pay.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Citizenship: Trump order blocked againFeature After the Supreme Court restricted nationwide injunctions, a federal judge turned to a class action suit to block Trump's order to end birthright citizenship
-
Loyalty tests: The purge at the FBIFeature Kash Patel is conducting polygraph tests on FBI agents to weed out anyone speaking badly about him
-
The all-seeing tech giantFeature Palantir's data-mining tools are used by spies and the military. Are they now being turned on Americans?
