"Iraq will conduct its first flight for those who are willing to return on the 18th of this month," Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ahmed al-Sahaf told state media, noting that these returns are voluntary.
Thousands of Iraqis, among them many Kurds, have left their homes this year, taking costly and often dangerous journeys in the hopes of reaching Europe. Many leave the country in search of
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...At least 8,000 Kurds have traveled to Belarus with the hopes of gaining access to western Europe, which has fortified itself against the wave of migration and accused Minsk of luring desperate
Iraq’s foreign ministry has registered 571 Iraqi citizens in eight camps along the border, Sahaf said, but "it is not possible to count the full numbers because the border strip extends 680 kilometres and there are some who are reluctant to return."
Dramatic scenes of
The United Nations
...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense...
, which visited the border last week, said many children and women, some of them pregnant, are among the
Many
Barzani in a tweet on Sunday said that he is "deeply concerned by the plight of our citizens, as well as the many others on the EU borders" and is working "with our partners to ensure their safety and security."
The prime minister added that the
Germany denies rumors that they will pick up migrants in Belarus
[Rudaw] The German foreign office said that the country will not pick up
"Rumours that Germany is planning to send busses to pick up persons from Belarus through Poland to Germany are false. Whoever spreads these lies puts people in great danger," the German Federal Foreign Office said on Twitter.
German Minister of State in the Foreign Office Niels Annen said after a phone call with Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani that they "will do everything together so that the Lukashenko regime no longer lures people to the EU borders with false promises," referring to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.