Returnees from Belarus claim forced repatriation

ERBIL, Kurdistan - A plane carrying over 400 Iraqi and Kurdish migrants from Minsk arrived in Erbil on Friday. Some migrants claim they were forced to return.

So far, over 3,000 migrants from across Iraq have returned from Belarus since last month. The majority of them are between the ages of 18 and 30.

Aryan Khalil, a returnee, told Rudaw on Friday he was deported by force by Belarussian police.

“They brought a bus the day before yesterday and filled it with migrants by kicking them. They then sent us in three taxis to the airport and locked us up. They made us get on the plane tonight and then returned us,” said the man.

Every migrant has a different story to tell. They have spent between $5,000 and $30k en route to Europe.

“[Making it to Europe on] this route is by chance. Some have been returned by force while some could make it. We’re the victims of this route,” said migrant Hawkar Bahadin at the airport.

Many come back to the Kurdistan Region with wounds from police brutality at the border.

“They [police] fractured my leg,” said Jumaa Mohammed, who said he left the Kurdistan Region in search of a better life.

Thousands of Iraqi and Kurdish people traveled to the Belarus-Poland borders in recent months to make it to Europe.

The difficult conditions at the border zone caught the attention of international media and leaders. Several migrants have died on the border so far.

Erbil and Baghdad began offering free flights to those who chose to return voluntarily last month.

According to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Department of Foreign Relations, more than a thousand migrants are waiting to be sent back to Iraq in Belarusian camps.

Translation and video editing by Sarkawt Mohammed