Migrants caught at Belarus border fly home
BAGHDAD — Hundreds of Iraqis returned home Thursday from Belarus after abandoning their hopes of reaching the European Union — a repatriation that came after tensions at Poland’s eastern border, where thousands of migrants became stuck in a cold and soggy forest.
Many others still in Belarus have moved into a heated warehouse not far from the border, emptying out a makeshift camp,
Belarusian state-run media reported. But the Polish Defense Ministry posted video showing a few hundred people and their tents still near an official crossing point.
It was not clear if the two countries were talking about two different sites on their border, but it was typical of the dueling narratives that have marked the crisis, in which both Belarus and Poland have sought to portray themselves in a positive light while depicting the other as unfeeling and irresponsible toward the migrants.
Most of the Iraqis who arrived at Irbil’s airport on the flight from Minsk are from the country’s northern Kurdistan region. One woman carried a bassinet with a baby clutching a bottle. Most still wore the heavy winter clothes from their time in Belarus despite the warm weather in Iraq. One fell to the ground after entering the airport, apparently fainting.
The flight continued on to the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
Tensions had flared at the Poland-Belarus border in recent days, with about 2,000 people trapped between the forces from the two countries. On Tuesday, some of the migrants had thrown stones at the Polish troops, who responded with tear gas and water cannons.
The U.N. refugee agency says about half the migrants at the border area were women and children.