Lebanon attempts to halt passenger flow to Belarus

Lebanon has told airlines to limit passengers travelling to Belarus to only those who have visas, residency permits or Belarusian citizenship, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said.

The Belarusian state airline Belavia has also stopped allowing citizens from Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Syria and Yemen to board flights to capital Minsk from Tashkent in Uzbekistan, the Belta news agency reported.

Foreign ministers from the G7 group of wealthy economies have condemned Belarus for orchestrating migration across its borders and called for an immediate halt to what it called an “aggressive and exploitative campaign”.

“These callous acts are putting people’s lives at risk,” the G7 said.

“We call on the regime to cease immediately its aggressive and exploitative campaign in order to prevent further deaths and suffering.”

The EU accuses Belarus of flying in migrants – mainly from the Middle East – and pushing them to attempt to illegally cross the border with Poland.

Belarus denies fuelling the crisis, which western leaders says is in retaliation for sanctions imposed on the former Soviet state after President Alexander Lukashenko’s disputed election victory last year.

The Polish army on Thursday said it had detained a group of about 100 migrants who crossed the Belarus border during the night.

It accused Belarusian forces of leading the operation.

The incident came as Belarus, which has said it wants to defuse the crisis, prepared a first migrant repatriation flight to Iraq, which will have between 200 and 300 people on board.

Thousands of migrants, are camped out or staying close to the border with Poland in freezing cold.

Aid groups say at least 11 migrants have died since the crisis began.

They are calling for a de-escalation and a humanitarian response to the problem.