More than 800 Iraqis return from border of Belarus, Poland

World

Published: 2021-11-26 18:19

Last Updated: 2024-03-27 22:02


Source: Foreign Policy
Source: Foreign Policy

Iraq has announced that two more planes will arrive Friday and Saturday with more than 800 Iraqi migrants who were stuck at the border of Belarus and Poland. 

They are the fourth and fifth flights of this nature in recent weeks. 

A statement quoted the Iraqi Foreign Ministry's spokesman, Ahmed Al-Sahaf, as saying that there is "a fourth flight that will be this evening (431) and another flight tomorrow (Saturday), carrying 430" immigrants.

Since the evacuations began on November 18, Iraq has succeeded in repatriating more than 1,000 migrants, most of them Kurds.

The Iraqi authorities, in coordination with the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government, organize flights that land in the region, because most of the migrants are Kurds, before heading to Baghdad.

Polish media estimates that at least 12 people have died on both sides of the border.

Western countries have accused Minsk of instigating the crisis since the summer in response to Western sanctions imposed on President Alexander Lukashenko's regime after it suppressed an opposition movement in 2020.

Minsk denied the accusation, and criticized the European Union for not welcoming migrants.