Iraq sends planes to Belarus to transport migrants | Abroad

The Minister of Transport announced that the first plane is expected to arrive in Erbil early Friday morning. Hundreds of Iraqis, mostly Kurds, returned voluntarily last week.

A camp near the border with Poland.

Ⓒ National Ports Agency / Agence France-Presse

An estimated 7,000 people, mostly from the Middle East, have recently camped out in western Belarus in hopes of reaching the European Union. Some succeeded, but most failed due to increased border security. The largest of the camps were evacuated last week after diplomatic talks between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, and the migrants have been flown back to their countries of origin.

The Polish armed forces detained about 100 migrants last week who tried to cross the border from Belarus. The Defense Ministry said they were imprisoned. “White Russians forced the migrants to throw stones at Polish soldiers to distract them,” the ministry said, after which a group tried to cross the border in the village of Dubicce, a few hundred meters away.

According to Poland, the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko brought them into his country using people-smuggling tactics to use as “weapons” at the border, in response to EU sanctions.