Hundreds of Iraqi Migrants Prepare to Leave Belarusian Border
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The Iraqi consul in Russia announces that his country's authorities have prepared airplanes to return Iraqi migrants stranded on the Belarussian borders.
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The returning migrants had registered to leave on planes allocated by the Iraqi government to transport them back to Iraq.
The Iraqi consul in Russia, Majid al-Kilani, stated that he had handed over to the Minsk Airport authorities a list of 430 names of migrants stranded at the borders between Belarus and Poland, 410 of whom arrived at Minsk Airport.
The list includes the names of migrants who had registered to leave on the plane allocated by the Iraqi government to transport citizens stranded at the Belarusian border.
In an interview for Sputnik on Thursday, al-Kilani said Iraqi authorities have prepared another plane to transport their citizens in case the number of migrants exceeds 430.
He also noted that 75 temporary passports were issued to people who lost theirs.
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Iraqi migrants preparing to return back to Iraq
According to the Polish Defense Ministry, Polish security forces arrested about 100 migrants who tried to cross the border with Belarus on Wednesday night.
On November 16, Polish border guards used tear gas and water pumps against migrants at the Polish-Belarus border, at a time when a number of migrants tried to break the fence on the border with Poland and threw stones at the Polish forces.
Following the incident, Polish Defense Minister warned the migrant crisis with Belarus may last for months or years, while Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stressed he wants to avoid turning the migrant crisis at the border with Poland into a confrontation.
Poland was one of 12 EU member states that urged the EU to fund border "barriers" to keep migrants out, a request which EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen rejected.
