Wednesday 17th November 2021
Planned return flight to Iraq
The first migrants leave the Belarusian border
Thousands of refugees are currently stuck in camps on the Belarusian-Polish border. Tomorrow, Thursday, the first flight will bring 170 Iraqis from Belarus back to their homeland. Minsk also sends buses to take people from the overcrowded camps to other places.
The first flight with Iraqi migrants from Belarus back to their homeland is scheduled to start on Thursday. This was reported by the Russian news agency RIA at noon, citing the Iraqi ambassador in Moscow. According to the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin, 170 Iraqis have registered at the Belarusian-Polish border for “prompt repatriation”. Their papers are now being prepared, said a ministry spokesman. The federal government has so far not been directly involved in the planning and implementation of the return flights. However, the Federal Foreign Office announced the planned flight on Monday.
According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the situation on the German-Polish border has eased. The trend of refugees arriving in Brandenburg was “lower in the last few days,” said a ministry spokesman. Last weekend, a total of 260 people entered illegally, the average being between 70 and 80 per day. In the meantime, more than 1000 migrants arrived at the German-Polish border every day, apparently taking the so-called Belarus route.
Belarus busses migrants out of the camp
According to the Polish government, Belarus has also started to take the migrants camped at the closed Kuznica-Brusgi border crossing to another location by bus. “I have received the information that Lukashenko has provided the first buses that the migrants get on and drive away. The tent camp near Kuznica is emptying,” said Poland’s Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik on TV Republika. “It looks like Lukashenko lost this battle for the border.”
Belarusian state media published videos of four coaches. These should bring some of the migrants “to other places”, it said, citing the Red Cross. This should prevent the new camp from getting too crowded. According to estimates by the Polish border guards on Tuesday, around 2,000 migrants gathered near Kuznica.
Fast conflict resolution still unrealistic
However, the Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak does not expect a quick settlement of the entire refugee conflict on the border with Belarus. “We have to be prepared for the fact that the situation on the Polish-Belarusian border will not be resolved quickly,” he told the radio station Jedynka. “We have to be prepared for months. I hope not for years.”
In the border area between Belarus and Poland, thousands of people, mainly from the Middle East and Africa, are still waiting to get to Poland and thus to the European Union. According to official information, Poland has meanwhile stationed more than 20,000 security guards in the border area in the region of the city of Kuznica in order to prevent illegal entry. The EU is accusing Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko of targeting migrants in retaliation for sanctions and then smuggling them into Poland. The Belarusian government rejects this.