Iraq decided to allocate a sum of money to help voluntarily return its citizens stranded in Belarus, Lithuania and Poland to the country, while social media platforms circulated "harsh" scenes of migrants at the borders between these countries.

The media office of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi said in a statement that the Ministry of Finance will allocate 300 million dinars (equivalent to $200 thousand) to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to spend it on Iraqis stranded in those European countries and voluntarily return them to Iraq.

Hundreds of Iraqis leave from the Ibrahim al-Khalil crossing between Iraq and Turkey - and before that from Iraqi airports - to Belarus.

They suffer tragic conditions, especially in the forests between Belarus and Poland, and dozens of them die during the journey.

Others find themselves trapped in border areas, facing cold, hunger, disease and ill-treatment.

As a result, Iraq closed the Belarusian consulates in Baghdad and Erbil, and suspended direct flights to this country in response to a request from the European Union in this regard.


border storming

This comes while it was reported that two large groups of migrants crossed the border from Belarus to Poland last night.

Dozens of people managed to destroy walls close to the villages of Krinki and Białystok and cross the border, according to the Polish news agency, citing the local radio station Białystok.

The radio quoted a Border Force spokeswoman as saying that in both cases, fences and barriers were violently demolished.

She said some of the migrants were returned to Belarus, while others managed to escape.

There were hundreds of migrants stranded on the Belarusian side.

Poland refuses to allow migrants into its territory and has sent hundreds of soldiers as reinforcements to the border in the past few weeks, as well as erecting a barbed wire fence, in an attempt to stop any attempts by migrants to breach the border.

Polish Prime Minister Matosz Morawiecki said - in a tweet yesterday, Tuesday during a visit to his country's borders with Belarus - that the current problem threatens stability and security not only in his country, but also the European Union.

Moravitsky accused Belarus of causing the refugee crisis, stressing that the current situation could not frighten them, and that they would maintain peace in Europe with the help of their allies in NATO and the European Union.

On the other hand, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko demanded yesterday to allow them to enter Poland, and he said in an interview that they mainly want to settle in Germany and not in Poland.

The European Union accuses Minsk of aiding migrants trying to reach the bloc's external borders in Poland, Latvia and Lithuania in retaliation for Western sanctions imposed on Belarus following what it describes as a brutal crackdown on dissent in 2020.

Lukashenko denies that he has deliberately brought in people from countries experiencing crises such as Syria, Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq, and then transferred them to the borders of the European Union.

The European Union plans to impose new sanctions on Belarus over the migrant crisis (Anatolia)

Possible penalties

The European Union is currently planning to impose new sanctions on Belarus, targeting mainly the state airline "Bellavia" for allegedly transporting migrants.

In this context, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas announced today, Wednesday, that his country supports imposing new European sanctions on Minsk, accusing the Belarusian president of sending migrants to his country's borders with Poland in "unscrupulous exploitation" of their weakness.

"We will punish everyone who participates in the smuggling of migrants for a specific purpose," Maas said in a statement, stressing that the European Union would "extend and intensify the sanctions imposed on the Lukashenko regime."

"Lukashenko must realize that his calculations are useless," he added, stressing that "the European Union cannot be blackmailed."

Yesterday, thousands of desperate migrants found themselves stranded in icy weather on the border between Belarus and Poland, a member of both the European Union and NATO (NATO), in a crisis that Warsaw accused both the Russian government and Lukashenko's regime of creating to threaten European security.

Maas described what is happening on the Belarusian border as "horrific", accusing Lukashenko of running a "dangerous spiral of escalation from which there is no way out."

The German minister also warned that the European Union was ready to impose sanctions on countries and airlines involved in sending migrants to Belarus.

"No one should be allowed to participate in Lukashenko's inhuman activities and get away with it," he said, warning that "we, as the European Union, are ready to learn lessons here as well."

For its part, Estonia yesterday accused Belarus of exploiting migrants stranded on the border with Poland to achieve political ends and destabilize neighboring countries, while Russia's UN delegate defended the latter's position.

Estonia's accusation was made by its foreign minister, Eva Maria Lemets, during her participation in the UN Security Council session on exclusion, inequality and conflicts.

In her speech, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia said that what we are witnessing today in Belarus is a mass repression against people and an intensification of cross-border repression.

In turn, Russia's permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, denounced the accusations against Belarus.

And he said - in his testimony during the same session - that the Estonian minister did not find better than using the platform of the United Nations Security Council to discredit Belarus, and this is not the first time.

"Let me remind you that the refugees at the borders with Poland and Lithuania are striving to reach Europe," he added.

They do not seek to remain in Belarus.

So who is creating the crisis?

"Now you threaten (Western countries) with sanctions? On whom? And why? You just don't want to accept refugees who seek to reach the European Union?"

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova had responded to Polish accusations against Belarus against the backdrop of a large influx of migrants, including Iraqis, and said in statements published by the Russian press, "It is better for Polish politicians who attack Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and accuse Minsk of causing the Iraqi migrant crisis, to remember Warsaw played a prominent role in the destruction of Iraq."

She added that more than two thousand Polish soldiers entered Iraq as part of the forces of countries allied with the United States to "establish democracy" in its regions.

Zakharova wondered whether Poland is ready today to receive "at least two thousand Iraqi refugees".

On Monday, many asylum seekers tried to cross the border to enter Poland from Belarus, where there are currently about 4,000 asylum seekers at the two countries' borders, according to the Polish news agency.