At least 430 Iraqi migrants registered for an evacuation flight to fly home after failing to enter the EU as Brussels strives to prevent migrant access to the bloc through Minsk.
Hundreds of Iraqis who camped for weeks at Belarus' borders with the EU have checked in for a flight back to Iraq.
The Iraqi foreign ministry made the statement as some 430 migrants were to board a flight in Minsk on Thursday to get to Iraq's Erbil and then on to Baghdad.
Now, hundreds of would-be migrants are returning home having failed to cross the heavily guarded frontier. Some described the harsh conditions of living in the forest in winter, often with young children, and of beatings by border guards.
A 30-year-old Iraqi Kurd, who declined to give his name, decided to register for the evacuation flight with his wife after they attempted to cross at least eight times from Belarus to Lithuania and Poland.
"I would not go back (to Iraq) if it wasn't for my wife," he told Reuters news agency a day ahead of the evacuation flight.
"She does not want to go back with me to the border, because she saw too many horrors over there."
Iraqis, especially Kurds, make up a significant number of the estimated 4,000 migrants now waiting in freezing Belarusian forests and trying to cross into Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.
At least eight people have died at the border in recent months, including a 19-year-old Syrian man who drowned in a river trying to cross to the EU.
EU pressure on access
Brussels will hope that a combination of pressure on airlines to stop flying migrants to Minsk and migrants giving up attempts to enter the bloc will eventually see the crisis ease.
Several airlines have already agreed to halt flights into the Belarusian capital for most passengers from countries including Iraq and Syria.
For months, EU countries have accused Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko of orchestrating the migrant crisis to avenge sanctions imposed after he won a disputed 2020 election and authorities cracked down on mass protests against him.
They said Belarus had made it easier for people from the Middle East to fly to Minsk and try to get into the bloc – an accusation he denies.
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(With input from news agency language)
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