500 000 Belarusians in social parasites database

About 500 thousand people have been added to the 'freeloaders list' or those who are not employed in Belarusian economy, Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Security Iryna Kastsevich said an interview with the state-run TV channel Belarus 1. Detailed information by regions will be available soon, she added. The database of unemployed citizens was launched on 1 December. It contains the following information about the 'parasites': a full name, a date of birth, an ID number and an address of of residence or registration.

Belarusians can now find out whether they are in the database, Euroradio reported on December 1. The database can be found on the Information Service Portal. If someone is added on the list by mistake, he or she will need to report it to a special employment commission in their place of registration. It will be necessary to present documents proving employment so that the commission could remove the person from the list.

"The database only allows to analyze the situation at the labour market to find out why able-bodied citizens are unemployed,” the Deputy Minister said. According to the President’s decree “On Employment”, unemployed Belarusians will have to pay a full price for the utilities and communal services starting from February 2019, Iryna Kastsevich noted.