MINSK. Dec 7 (Interfax) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has ordered his officials to "immediately start employing the unemployed."
"With police authorities, get someone in whom you think necessary. Immediately register all parasites hanging around doing nothing and make them work," Lukashenko said at a meeting on the national economy, a fragment of which was circulated by the Number One's Pool Telegram-channel close to his press service.
"A jobless wanderer is not just a protesteer on the street. It is a future criminal who throws in a crime for us every day, week, and month. And we spend huge money to resolve these crimes, and then keep them [in custody] in places not quite far off," Lukashenko said.
"Yet again, I repeat: make everyone work. Everyone must have a list of such parasites who must work," the president said.
For nearly four months, Belarus has seen continuous protests against the official results of the August 9 presidential election. The authorities declared the incumbent head of state, Alexander Lukashenko, the winner. Lukashenko has been in office since 1994. The opposition has not recognized the results of the presidential election, saying they were falsified. The protesters are demanding Lukashenko's resignation, the release of political prisoners, and a new election.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the human rights situation in the country continues to worsen, peaceful demonstrations are being violently dispersed by the unjustified and disproportionate use of force. In all, over 27,000 people have been detained by early December, with hundreds arrested every week over the previous month, and there have been cases of cruel mistreatment of the demonstrators, and punishments for protestors are becoming increasingly tougher, according to the commissioner.
As for social parasites, Lukashenko has been fighting these for several years now. Earlier he decreed that every Belarusian, or a foreign citizen or stateless person who permanently resides in Belarus, who has not paid any financial contribution to the state or has done so less than 183 calendar days in a year, should be charged a levy equivalent to 20 base units.
The decree was met with active protests. Several big cities staged so-called marches of non-parasites in February and March 2017, leading the decree to be suspended.
In late January 2018, Lukashenko signed another decree, abolishing the "parasite levy" for the unemployed capable of working, but requiring them to pay in full for a number of services.