A large group of Iraqis, who did not manage to get to Poland from Belarus, flies from Minsk to Baghdad, the RIA Novosti correspondent reports. Many of them say they will look for an opportunity to enter the EU in a different way.
On Thursday afternoon, the first export flight of “Iraqi Airlines” flew to Minsk, which is supposed to take home all Iraqis who have not managed to break through from Belarus to Poland or Lithuania. According to the airport board, the plane will arrive at 13:15 local time and will fly back at 13:45.
Already in the morning, buses with Iraqis from the border began to arrive at the airport. They can be unmistakably recognizable by the strong smell of the fires that they burned at the border. Under the strong supervision of the police and airport staff, migrants are checked-in for the flight and screened. Many of them say that they do not give up the hope of getting into the European Union in some other way.
“Yes, in Iraq now the world, but very bad with work. And no social benefits, like in Europe. I work 12 hours in a restaurant to get five dollars,” a young man Alan from the city of Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq told RIA Novosti.
According to him, he had been saving money for a ticket to Belarus for five years. “And what is the result? I spent two months at the border. I was very tired. Now I decided to return,” Alan said. He will look for an opportunity to get to the longed-for Germany.
“I’ll try to get a German visa,” he says.
He made his journey with his uncle and friends, some of them still at the border. “My uncle is also tired, but he cannot just go and return home, lose the money that he has already spent,” Alan explained.
Several thousand migrants have accumulated on the border of Belarus and Poland in the past few weeks, hoping to get to the EU countries. The Polish authorities have strengthened border security, pulled in the military and thwarted attempts by illegal immigrants to enter the country, blaming Minsk for the migration crisis. All these accusations are denied by Belarus, claiming that Poland is forcibly expelling migrants.