Iraqi migrants caught in border tensions in Belarus fly home

Hundreds of Iraqis are flying home from Belarus, abandoning their hopes of reaching the European Union following more than a week of tensions at the bloc’s eastern border

MOSCOW -- Hundreds of Iraqis flew home from Belarus on Thursday, abandoning their hopes of reaching the European Union following more than a week of tensions at the bloc's eastern border, where thousands of migrants became stuck.

Meanwhile, state-run Belarusian media reported that there were no more migrants left in the makeshift camps near the Polish frontier after authorities opened a heated warehouse for them to shelter from the cold in. This could not immediately be verified.

Since Nov. 8, some 2,000 people, mostly from the Middle East, have been stranded at the border crossing, trapped in a dank forest as forces from the two countries faced off against each other. At least 12 people have died in the area in recent weeks, including a 1-year-old whose death a Polish humanitarian organization reported Thursday.

Most are fleeing conflict or hopelessness at home and aim to reach Germany or other western European countries. But Poland didn’t want to let them in, and Belarus didn’t want them returning to the capital of Minsk or otherwise settling in the country.