Monday 15th November 2021
Refugee dispute with Minsk
Iraq wants to bring back migrants from Belarus
In the freezing cold, thousands of refugees are waiting in the border area between Poland and Belarus. Aid organizations are warning of a humanitarian catastrophe. Now the situation could relax a little: Iraq wants to fly its own citizens back home.
The Iraqi government has announced the first flight to return migrants to the Belarusian-Polish border. Iraqi citizens could return to their homes on Thursday on a “voluntary” basis, Foreign Office spokesman Ahmed al-Sahaf said on Iraqi television. The Iraqi authorities have “registered 571 Iraqis” in the border area who have agreed to voluntarily return to their homeland.
The private Syrian airline Cham Wings had previously suspended its flights to Belarus due to the refugee crisis. The Turkish government had banned people from Syria, Iraq and Yemen from traveling to Belarus. Air traffic between Baghdad and Minsk was suspended in August.
Thousands of people, especially from the Middle East, are currently stuck in the Belarusian-Polish border area in temperatures around freezing point. The EU accuses Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko of deliberately smuggling people from the Middle East into the EU in order to retaliate for sanctions decisions taken in Brussels. Aid organizations are warning of a humanitarian catastrophe if the migrants are stuck there any longer. So far, over ten people have died.
The Polish authorities have sealed off the border so far and have started building a fortified border protection system. Most recently, Warsaw expressed fears that Belarusian security forces were preparing the migrants to break through the barrier. The rumor had apparently spread among the refugees that the border would be opened at the beginning of the week and people would be allowed to continue to Germany. Both Poland and the federal government officially denied this.
In view of the influx of refugees at the border, the foreign ministers of the EU member states are discussing new sanctions today. According to Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, the sanctions are to be extended to people “who directly or indirectly” support the smuggling of migrants to Belarus. Airlines that are still involved in the transport of refugees through Belarus could, according to Maas, have their overflight rights and landing permits withdrawn in the EU.