SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The Iraqi foreign ministry said 417 more Iraqi and Kurdish migrants stranded in Belarus were flown back to Iraq on Friday.
“A ninth evacuation flight was operated for those who want to return voluntarily, with 417 Iraqi passengers on board,” spokesman Ahmed al-Sahaf said in a statement.
As many as 3,550 Iraqi and Kurdish migrants have been flown back since repatriation flights began in mid-November from the ex-Soviet state, with many showing injuries from the freezing cold.
Several thousand more migrants remain in Belarus, including at a logistics center at the Bruzgi checkpoint of the Belarusian-Poland border, according to AFP.
The West has accused Belarus of purposefully luring migrants — mostly from the Middle East — to the EU’s border as revenge for sanctions against President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime.
Belarus has denied the claim and criticised the EU for not taking in the migrants.
