Migrants: Baghdad to repatriate 200 Iraqis stranded in Belarus
Audio 01:16
Migrants from the Middle East in front of their tents at Kuznitsa checpoint on the border with Poland, in Grodno, Belarus, November 17, 2021. © AP / Leonid Shcheglov
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
A repatriation flight is scheduled for Thursday, November 18 for at least 200 Iraqis stranded at the border between Belarus and Poland, "
on a voluntary basis
", according to the authorities in Baghdad.
Several thousand people, many of whom come from Iraqi Kurdistan, are trapped in the heart of a diplomatic standoff between the two countries.
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Rebin Sirwan is an Iraqi Kurdish journalist.
Threatened in his region, he left like many others for Europe.
The route through
Belarus
seemed the safest, but the Polish border suddenly closed.
He got stuck.
“
Until you've experienced it, you can't imagine what it is,” he
says.
It's cold, there is no food or water, the police are hitting you.
When we went to see the Belarusian police, telling them that we wanted to go back to Belarus, they beat us and told us that we had to go to Poland.
They beat us a lot, they stole our things, our money.
"
►
To read also: From Iraqi Kurdistan to the Belarusian trap, "we are to survive without moving forward"
"They hit me with an electric baton"
After a week, a police officer agreed to take Rebin out of the monitored area for 200 euros.
Back in Minsk, he thought he could apply for political asylum in Belarus.
“
I told them that I was a journalist and that my life was in danger in my country,”
he continues.
Instead of helping me, they forcibly took me to the airport to deport me.
In less than two hours, without even registering my request, they detained me at the airport and then put me on a plane where they hit me with an electric baton.
Frankly, everything happened to me on this trip.
"
However, Rebin is already preparing to leave in a few days.
He will take another route this time.
But he's determined to get to Europe.
► To read also: The Kurds of Iraq continue to take the migration route
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Iraq
Belarus
Poland
International Migration
Kurds