Enlarge image
A family who fled the Iraqi Dohuk is waiting in a forest near the Belarusian-Polish border
Photo: WOJTEK RADWANSKI / AFP
Thousands of people from countries like Syria or Iraq are waiting for a chance to cross the border to the EU.
The Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko had them flown in and moved on to the border with Poland.
A dispute has broken out about how to deal with those seeking refuge in cold forests.
The Iraqi government has now announced that it will take back refugees on a first return flight.
Iraqi citizens could return to their homeland on Thursday on a "voluntary" basis, Foreign Office spokesman Ahmed al-Sahaf said on Iraqi television on Monday night, according to Arab media.
The Iraqi authorities had "registered 571 Iraqis" in the border area who had agreed to voluntarily return to their homeland.
Previously, the private Syrian airline Cham Wings had suspended its flights to Belarus due to the current events.
The Turkish government had banned people from Syria, Iraq and Yemen from traveling to Belarus.
Air traffic between Baghdad and Minsk was suspended in August.
The Belarusian state news agency Belta again published photos of people in the border area warming themselves around campfires in makeshift camps on Monday.
The migrants, some of whom are said to have been pushed into the forests by Belarusian security forces, are staying there despite freezing temperatures.
Several times larger groups tried to break through the fence in the direction of Poland.
Targeted smuggling
The EU suspects that Lukashenko, with his strategy of bringing migrants into the country and bringing them to the EU border, is seeking revenge for sanctions that the EU has imposed because of the repression of civil society and the democratic opposition.
Poland's border guards recently expressed fears that Belarusian security forces were preparing those seeking protection to break through the barrier.
The rumor had apparently spread in the camp that the border would be opened at the beginning of the week and people would be allowed to continue to Germany.
Both Poland and the federal government officially denied this.
EU plans new sanctions
The foreign ministers of the EU states want to adopt a new sanction instrument this Monday, which is aimed at those involved in the smuggling of migrants into Belarus.
Among other things, it is to be used against the state-owned Belarusian airline Belavia.
In future, this company will no longer receive machines from companies that lease aircraft.
The aim is that Belavia will then no longer be able to fly as many people from crisis regions to Belarus to be smuggled on to the EU.
Tour operators and members of the government apparatus involved in the smuggling in Belarus are also to be put under pressure.
For Germany, the acting Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) is expected at the meeting in Brussels.
mrc / AFP