Migration through Belarus: Kurdish leadership in northern Iraq calls for more help from Europe

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Kurdish woman in the refugee camp on the border between Belarus and Poland

Photo: KACPER PEMPEL / REUTERS

The Kurdish leadership in northern Iraq appeals to Europe to help it in the fight against smugglers who have brought thousands of migrants to the EU's external borders via Belarus.

"We need support to take action against the criminal networks that smuggle our people into Europe and seduce them to take this dangerous journey," said the Prime Minister of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq Masrour Barzani in an interview with the "Welt" and the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" .

The smugglers are not only a threat to the security of Iraq, but also to that of Europe.

"Europe should do more to prevent such incidents from happening again," said Barzani, referring to the situation in Belarus.

Most of the people on the border are Kurds

His country needs more support from Germany and Europe in the long term, especially in development cooperation, said Barzani.

“Iraq doesn't need any financial aid, the country has enough money.

But we urgently need support for the necessary reforms and in the fight against corruption. "

According to European estimates, around 70 percent of the migrants in Belarus currently come from Iraq, of which around three quarters come from the Kurdish region.

In the past few days, planes with return travelers took off from Minsk for the first time, and they went to Erbil in northern Iraq, among other places.

more on the subject

• Mass emigration: "I would rather die on the Polish border than live in Iraq" Maximilian Popp reports from Erbil and Ranya, Iraq

• Refugees in Belarus at the border: "Is there finally good news from Germany?" Christina Hebel reports from Bruzgi on the Belarusian-Polish border

• Access to asylum procedures: Europe is about to abolish refugee protectionA comment by Steffen Lüdke

The Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko began to fly in targeted migrants to Belarus and send them to the Polish border in the summer.

Research by SPIEGEL recently revealed how Lukashenko's smuggling system works in detail.

Documents show that his regime systematically built the Belarus route.

The state-owned Zentrkurort began issuing dozens of tourist visas to Iraqis in May.

The company is subordinate to Lukashenko's presidential administration.

A little later, the visa business was gradually transferred to private companies.

The EU speaks of hybrid war - and relies on pushbacks

The EU is talking about a "hybrid war" and has closed the border.

Polish border guards systematically carry out so-called pushbacks, which the Polish parliament had legalized despite violating EU laws.

The border guards intercept the people on the Polish side of the border in the forest and force them back to Belarus.

The asylum seekers have no chance to apply for asylum.

Because the Belarusian border guards do not leave the people behind either, the migrants are often trapped at the border.

Several people have already frozen to death in the cold.

Further snowfall threatens on Saturday.

Despite the danger, many Kurds from Northern Iraq set out for Minsk voluntarily.

They see their chance of a new life in the EU in the trip to Minsk (read more about this in this report).

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