Hundreds of Iraqis fly home from Belarus as border crisis subsides

MOSCOW — At slightest 400 Iraqis are expected to beryllium connected a repatriation formation from Minsk to Iraq Thursday aft unsuccessful attempts to participate the European Union astatine the Belarus-Poland borderline near hundreds of migrants stranded successful treacherous conditions.

The E.U. has accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of “weaponizing” the travel of Middle Eastern migrants — galore are from Iraq’s Kurdistan portion — successful retaliation for pugnacious sanctions implicit the past year.

But the standoff is progressively devolving into a humanitarian situation with precocious autumn temperatures dipping beneath freezing. Thousands of the refugees had been camping retired successful a wood adjacent the borderline crossing earlier Belarus bussed immoderate to a adjacent warehouse connected Wednesday.

It’s unclear what volition hap to those who bash not privation to beryllium repatriated, oregon if Belarusian authorities program to nonstop them backmost to the borderline successful the coming days.

The refugees that marque it crossed into Poland and are caught are often deported adjacent if they assertion asylum, a signifier legalized by Poland past period adjacent though it runs contrary to planetary law.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said connected Twitter that the bloc is mobilizing astir $800,000 to present food, blankets, hygiene and archetypal assistance kits to the refugees connected the border.

“We are acceptable to bash more. But the Belarusian authorities indispensable halt luring radical and putting their lives astatine risk,” von der Leyen said.

Belarusian officials said they program to connection the Chinese Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine to the refugees, according to Russian authorities quality bureau RIA.

For months, Belarus has opened routes for the migrants to scope the E.U.’s eastbound borders, and the bloc has accused Belarus of orchestrating the flows of migrants to the frontier.

In videos published to societal media, equipped Belarusian guards person been seen escorting hundreds of migrants toward its borderline with Poland. The Belarus borderline committee said successful a connection this week that they “arrived astatine the Belarusian-Polish borderline connected their ain to articulation the spontaneous exile camp. For the information of the people, Belarusian soldiers accompanied the radical to the determination of the camp, successful bid to debar provocations from the Polish side.”

Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ahmed al-Sahaf told Iraqi tv earlier this week that the authorities would signifier a archetypal repatriation formation connected Thursday for those who “wish to instrumentality voluntarily.”

Amid the caller borderline crisis, galore aerial links betwixt the Middle East and Minsk person present either been suspended oregon are not carrying passengers who are citizens of definite Middle Eastern countries.

Belarusian authorities hose Belavia, which is expected to beryllium a people of upcoming E.U. sanctions, announced Thursday that it has stopped allowing citizens from Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Syria and Yemen to committee flights from Uzbekistan’s Tashkent to Minsk, according to the authorities BelTA quality agency.

Mary Ilyushina successful Moscow and Louisa Loveluck successful London contributed to this report.