Belarus begins repatriation of hundreds of migrants | DW News

Iraq began the voluntary repatriations of its citizens from Belarus on Thursday amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis near the border between Poland and Belarus. The Iraqi Ministry of Transport confirmed that the repatriated individuals arrived in the Kurdish city of Erbil. Iraq has appealed for Iraqi citizens to fly home, telling them the way into the European Union is closed. Some 431 people were on an Iraqi Airways flight from Minsk to Baghdad, Russian state-run Interfax reported. Belarusian Authorities have said that some 7,000 migrants are in the country. President Alexander Lukashenko has proposed returning 5,000 migrants to their home countries and urged the EU to take 2,000 of the stranded migrants in a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer rejected an alleged Belarusian proposal to Merkel as “misinformation.“ Following talks with his Polish counterpart, Seehofer said that Germany “will not take in refugees.“ The EU b