SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The security forces in Kurdistan have detained more than 10 people over smuggling civilians to the European Union through Belarus, a government spokesman said.
Iraqis, especially Kurds, have made up a significant number of the estimated 4,000 migrants waiting in freezing forests and trying to cross into Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.
On November 18, of the 430 Iraqis who returned from Minsk on a repatriation flight last week, 390 disembarked in Erbil.
The would-be migrants say they have sold their homes, cars and other belongings to pay off smugglers with the hope of reaching the European Union from Minsk.
“More than 10 smugglers have been arrested and investigations are ongoing with them,” spokesman of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Jotiar Adil said in a press conference on Wednesday.
He further said more than 700 people who are stranded on Belarus-Poland had registered to return home.
“The KRG supports voluntary return of migrants back to their hometown,” Adil said in a tweet on Thursday.
Kurdish officials said Kurds were lured to Belarus by traffickers with false promises of an easy journey.
“This isn’t a migrant issue but a criminal human trafficking issue,” KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said in a tweet.
Migrants said they left by their own accord, desperate for a life with the dignity they couldn’t find at home, and were not coerced by smugglers.
For months, EU countries have accused Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko of orchestrating the migrant crisis to avenge sanctions imposed after he won a disputed 2020 election and authorities cracked down on mass protests against him.
Several airlines have already agreed to halt flights into the Belarusian capital for most passengers from countries including Iraq and Syria.
Humanitarian agencies say up to 13 migrants have died at the border, where many have suffered in a cold, damp forest with little food or water as a frigid winter sets in.
