Iraqis lured to Belarus on a false promise died trying to get into Poland. Now hundreds want to go back home.

Irbil, Iraq — About 420 Iraqis left Belarus on Thursday to return to the country they thought they had left behind in hope of a brighter future in Europe. The repatriation flight was part of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's efforts to ease soaring tension with his European Union neighbors.

Poland and the EU, along with the U.S. and its G7 allies, accuse Lukashenko, an ally of Russian President Putin, of manufacturing an immigration crisis by luring thousands of migrants and refugees to his country on the false promise of easy passage onto EU soil.

Thousands of desperate people, many from Iraq and Syria, spent huge sums of money on plane tickets and to pay traffickers for what they expected to be a smooth journey into Poland and Western Europe.