Iraqis check in for flight home after failing to enter EU from Belarus
Iraqis check in for flight home after failing to enter EU from Belarus
Hundreds ofIraqiswho have camped for weeks atBelarus' borders with theEUchecked in for aflightback to Iraq on Thursday, the Iraqi foreign ministry said.
Some 430 migrants, mostly Iraqi Kurds, were to board aflightin Minsk bound for Erbil in Iraq's autonomous northern Kurdistan region, and then on to Baghdad.
Iraqis, especially Kurds, make up a significant number of the estimated 4,000 migrants now waiting in freezingBelarusian forests and trying to cross into Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.
For months,EUcountries have accusedBelarusPresident Alexander Lukashenko of orchestrating the migrant crisis to avenge sanctions imposedafterhe won a disputed 2020 election and authorities cracked down on mass protests against him.
They saidBelarushad made it easier for peoplefromthe Middle East to fly to Minsk and try to get into the bloc - an accusation he denies.
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Now, hundreds of would-be migrants are returninghomehaving failed to cross the heavily guarded frontier. Some described the harsh conditions of living in the forest in winter, often with young children, and of beatings by border guards.
A 30-year-old Iraqi Kurd, who declined to give his name, decided to register for the evacuationflightwith his wifeafterthey attempted to cross at least eight timefromBelarusto Lithuania and Poland.
"I would not go back (to Iraq) if it wasn't for my wife," he told Reuters a day ahead of the evacuationflight. "She does not want to go back with me to the border, because she saw too many horrors over there."
Brussels will hope that a combination of pressure on airlines to stop flying migrants to Minsk and migrants giving up attempts toenterthe bloc will eventually see the crisis ease.
Several airlines have already agreed to haltflights into theBelarusian capital for most passengersfromcountries including Iraq and Syria.
At least eight people have died at the border in recent months, including a 19-year-old Syrian man who drowned in a river trying to cross to theEU.