Each state has the right to permit or prohibit the entry into its territory of any foreign citizens. And the one whose stay in the country is prohibited is undesirable, is called "persona non grata." What this phrase means for diplomats and ordinary people, we will discuss in our article.
What does persona non grata mean under the Vienna Convention
To resolve this issue, international rules were created, they were first applied mainly to representatives of the diplomatic corps. So, according to the 9th article of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961, any state can declare a diplomat persona non grata at any time, without explaining the reasons. A person who finds out about his new status is forced to leave the country within the specified time, otherwise the state will refuse to recognize him as an employee of the mission. And in case of violation of the time of departure, it has the right to resort to declaring this diplomat a private person.
This punishment was invented as a means of influencing suspected espionage, as a sign of protest against the state represented by this person, or disagreement with any diplomatic statements.
How an ordinary citizen learns that he is a persona non grata
By the way, an ordinary visitor, by the way, usually finds out that this punishment only happened when he was in the country and undergoing passport control, since the lists of people who fell under the status of an “unwanted guest” were usually closed.
Most often, such measures are associated with public criticism of the government or government bodies of the visited country or disrespect for its customs and laws in which this visitor was noticed.
What does it look like in Russia
Every now and then in the domestic press there are notes about how an employee of a foreign embassy is detained on charges of espionage or recruitment. But a ban on entry into Russia can also be announced to persons suspected of insulting state symbols (this happened at one time with the rock band Bloodhound Gang), conducting subversive activities in the state (the case of the American journalist David Sutter), committing offenses or falsification of documents allowing stay in the territory of the Russian Federation.
Non grata persons in Russia, as a rule, are transferred to the official representatives of the embassy of their country and are expelled from the state without the right to enter it from 3 to 10 years. But there are cases of cancellation of status by the decision of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
