MESOP MIDEAST WATCH: Belarus Convinced Thousands of Migrants to Return to Their Countries: Lukashenko

ERBIL 14-12-2021— Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that Minsk has succeeded in convincing thousands of migrants from the Middle East to return to their countries.

“We keep promises, and we have convinced thousands of refugees to return to their countries,” he said during an interview published on Monday, adding that the European Union should have taken in at least two thousands of those families.

“If people refuse to go to Europe, we will convince them to return to their homeland, and if they want to stay in Belarus, we have a law, and we will act strictly according to it,” Lukashenko noted.

Thousands of people from the Kurdistan Region and Iraq were among migrants stranded on the border between Belarus and Poland for months.

Ahmed al-Sahaf, a spokesperson for the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, said yesterday that a total of 3,556 Kurdish and Iraqi migrants have so far been brought home from Belarus voluntarily, explaining that “the Iraqi consular service issued a total of 383 passports to people who lost their documents and found themselves in the territory of Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia or Poland.”