Friday November 12th 2021
Ten migrants dead at the border
Iraq wants to bring compatriots back from Belarus
The EU has achieved its first success in the refugee dispute with Belarus: Turkey promises not to send Iraqis, Syrians and Yemenis to Minsk any more. Baghdad is now announcing that it will be flying its own compatriots out of the border area. There are already ten dead there, report the Polish media.
Iraq wants to bring back Iraqi migrants stuck on the Polish-Belarusian border. The government is ready to organize several trips for Iraqis “who want to return,” said a foreign ministry spokesman. Those willing to return are currently being registered. Thousands of migrants, including many Kurdish Iraqis, are stuck on the border between Belarus and Poland as a result of the refugee dispute between Minsk and the EU.
Meanwhile, the EU is recording its first successes in the refugee conflict with Belarus: Turkey was the first country to ban nationals from Syria, Iraq and Yemen from flights from Turkish airports to Belarus. The main Belarusian airline, Belavia, announced that it would abide by the order. With two international airports, Istanbul is an important hub for air traffic between the Middle East and Europe.
The EU accuses the Belarusian ruler, Alexander Lukashenko, of smuggling migrants mainly from the Middle East to the borders of the EU states Latvia, Lithuania and Poland in retaliation for sanctions. The EU Commission suspects that Minsk is receiving help from other countries for refugee flights.
“We have many friends”
For this reason, Brussels has been in contact for days, particularly with countries in the Middle East. The Vice President of the EU Commission, Margaritis Schinas, had therefore traveled to Lebanon. There is “progress on all fronts,” he said after a meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun. The day before, he had already held talks on the subject in Dubai. He plans to travel to other countries in the region next week. Europe is currently counting “in a way its friends and we are very happy that we have many,” he said.
In the conflict with Belarus, the EU will tighten its course once again: At the EU foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, the sanctions would be extended to people “who indirectly or directly” supported the smuggling of migrants to Belarus, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told the “Rheinische Post” and the “Bonner General-Anzeiger”. The SPD politician also did not rule out punitive measures against participating airlines.
Ten dead at the border fence with Poland
At the EU’s external border in Poland, thousands of migrants, mainly from the Middle East, are currently stuck in freezing temperatures. Poland has deployed 15,000 soldiers in the area because of the rush. In a makeshift camp in the border area between Poland and Belarus, more than 2,000 migrants are currently waiting under the most difficult conditions. According to a report by the Polish newspaper “Gazeta Wyborcza”, ten people have already died there in the past few weeks.
Belarus and the allied Russia announced joint military exercises in the Belarusian region of Grodno near the Polish border on Friday. The Ministry of Defense in Minsk justified the move with the “increase in military activity” near the Belarusian border.
However, the Kremlin had previously distanced itself from Lukashenko’s threat to stop gas deliveries to Europe in the event of new EU sanctions. Russia “is and will remain a country that is meeting all of its obligations to deliver gas to European consumers,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The Yamal-Europe pipeline, which carries Russian gas to Europe, also runs through Belarusian territory.