Katya Bartko applied for asylum in the United States because of political persecution in Belarus. As a result of a wrongful arrest, she ended up in an immigration detention centre, without the life-saving medication she needs, and came within a hair's breadth of death. Her partner Dmitry is asking for help to free her from detention with the assistance of lawyers and prevent her deportation to Belarus.
My name is Dmitry. I am appealing to everyone who cares for help on behalf of and with the permission of my girlfriend, Katerina Bartko, because she is physically unable to do so herself right now: she is in ICE immigration detention in Kansas, USA. I am her partner and officially authorized representative for medical and legal matters.
Katya is Belarusian, 33 years old, and originally from Hlybokaye. In 2020, during the presidential “campaign,” she worked as a teacher and refused to take her students to early voting for pro-government candidates, for which she was punished by the school administration. She took part in the peaceful marches of 2020 and supported the Belarusian democratic movement, and after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, she openly published anti-war materials.
Her loved ones were persecuted for the same reasons. After the outbreak of the war, her former partner helped document the movement of Russian military equipment, for which he was convicted. Photographs from peaceful marches were used as evidence in his case – and Katya was next to him in every one of them.
The authorities became interested in her. They investigated where Katya lived, who her friends and relatives were, and which social media accounts and names she used. Pro-government channels published photographs of the two of them together along with his forced confession video. And in October 2022, people came looking for Katya at her parents' home.
In March 2022, Katya legally entered the United States on a student visa, and in February 2023 she applied for asylum. She was waiting her turn, like thousands of Belarusians. But in June 2026, following a wrongful arrest over a minor case – subsequently dismissed for lack of guilt, with no conviction or criminal record – she ended up in ICE detention.
And here, a legal problem turned into a threat to her life. Katya's thyroid gland was removed because of cancer. To function normally, she needs to take hormones and calcium every day for the rest of her life – without them, her body begins to fail within days.
In detention, continuity of her treatment was disrupted: during the first four days, she was taken to hospital by ambulance three times, one of these hospitalizations involving critically dangerous, life-threatening readings. Her medication was then taken away – and for almost three weeks, she was given nothing. According to the latest available results, Katya's TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone, which is produced by the thyroid gland or taken in tablet form by a person without a thyroid gland, and is necessary for the body's functioning) is 33 times above the normal level. She is at risk of myxedema coma, a condition with a mortality rate of 25–60%.
She was denied release on bail on a single formal ground: over the previous years, she had moved between states several times, and this was deemed a “flight risk” for failing to appear at hearings.
Only legal assistance and public exposure can save her. I don't sleep at night. I write to senators, oversight bodies, and journalists. Sometimes I feel like giving up. But then I remember that public exposure has already worked once – after media reports, she began receiving the medication she had been without for three weeks – and I keep going.
But legal protection in the United States involves enormous costs for me. That is why I am asking for your help. Each legal action is billed separately: preparing a federal lawsuit demanding immediate treatment or release, the work of immigration lawyers, every motion, every hearing.
Immigration court proceedings and legal representation in her asylum case are the most important things right now, so that she can be released from detention and not deported to Belarus.
What do I feel? Fear – every day that I won't make it in time. The woman I love, who beat cancer, is behind bars not for a crime, but because she asked for protection – on the brink between life and death.
If you are Belarusian, you know why Katya cannot return home. If you are simply a person who cares – imagine that someone close to you became seriously ill in a foreign country, behind bars, without medication. Help me get Katya to her asylum hearing alive.
Every donation will bring Katya closer to being saved!
Fundraising goal
€4800
€3900 – legal expenses for a federal habeas corpus petition in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas (demanding immediate comprehensive medical treatment or release)
€900 – medical bills personally charged to Katerina for emergency care provided while she was in ICE detention (three hospitalizations from the detention centre on June 6–9, 2026) and a hospital bill currently due