Iraq airlifts hundreds back home after violence at Belarus-Poland border

Hundreds of desperate people trapped at the Belarus border trying to cross into Poland have been forced to go back on flights to Iraq.

A major exodus is underway after thousands of asylum seekers became stuck in a freezing forest amid a political row between Belarus and the EU.

Families from the Middle East, Africa and Asia hoped to cross into the European Union through Poland after allegedly being flown into Belarus by dictator Alexander Lukashenko, who is accused of creating an artificial migration route in retaliation for sanctions.

But they were repeatedly denied entry into Poland, in what campaign groups have blasted as ‘human rights abuses’.

Some people have spent weeks trapped at the frontier, as Belarus is also refusing to let them back in.

There have been scenes of violence with Polish soldiers using water cannons against migrants and Belarus reportedly arming those stranded with tear gas.

Now, the country is offering to fly migrants back to their home land.

Repatriation flights headed back to Iraq are filled with hundreds of people, including children.

Pictures from Minsk airport show asylum seekers crowded and awaiting to be boarded.

An Iraqi Airways flight departed at 10.15pm local time on Friday, while another left today at 2.45am, according to a Daily Mail report.

Shaho Omar and his friend were some of those who abandoned their plans to reach Germany and then travel to Britain after the horrifying reports that 27 people had drowned while trying to cross the Channel.

The 27-year-old told the New York Times: ‘What happened to them could have happened to us – that shocked us.

‘The police took our money, they took our phone. They took our food and then came back later and offered to sell it back to us’, he added, referring to the Belarusian officers.

‘We didn’t even have enough money to buy it back.’

The retreat back to Erbil and Baghdad is a major embarrassment for Lukashenko who had sanctioned the flow of thousands of migrants to his country in a ‘weaponisation’ of migration, say Western sources.

The migrants had been promised a better life in the EU and Britain, and his KGB secret police and border guards are said to have choreographed multiple unsuccessful bids to illegally break the border.

Some who have already returned to Iraq have also complained of beatings by Lukashenko’s security operatives.

The leader of Belarus, who has ruled the country for three decades, threatened the European Union in May to ‘flood’ its member states with migrants after it imposed sanctions on him following the forced downing of a plane carrying a Belarusian dissident.

The West say he colluded with people trafficking gangs in a blatant bid to cause migrant chaos across Europe.

But Poland’s massive show of force at the border – backed by NATO including Britain – has led to many migrants concluding they were sold false hopes of reaching a better life.

‘It shows that with decisive action it is possible to stop the malicious and illegal exploitation of migrants,’ said a Polish source.

Now, Lukashenko is demanding that the union pays for the repatriation flights.

He said: ‘Let the Europeans pay. They are scoundrels. We have allocated money, millions and thousands…

‘What is the cost of this flight? And there is no-one to pay. Let the European Union pay for it.’

However, he has told migrants still stranded between Belarus and Poland that they won’t force anyone to go back home.

Speaking from the Bruzgi border crossing with Poland he said: ‘I would like you to know that we are not going to detain you, push you onto planes and send you back home if you do not want to do that.’

On Thursday, the Iraqi foreign ministry said it had evacuated 617 migrants stranded in Belarus, including women, children and the elderly.

Spokesperson Ahmed al-Sahaf said: ‘The ministry’s efforts are continuing to evacuate the migrants voluntarily, and 617 Iraqis are now returned, in coordination with Iraqi Airways, from the Belarusian capital Minsk.’

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