Migrants sit around a fire near a barbed wire fence in Grodno region, Belarus Nov. 8,2021.Leonid Scheglov/BelTA/Handout via REUTERS
PM:08:38:09/11/2021
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SULAIMANI — Iraq’s Ministry of Finance on Tuesday (November
9) allocated 300 million Iraqi dinars ($200,000) to the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs to aid Iraqis stranded in Belarus, Lithuania, and Poland and enable
them to return voluntarily to their homes.
The decision was made during a meeting of the Council of
Ministers chaired by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.
The allocation is from an emergency fund of in the 2021
federal budget.
Thousands of people from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have
left over the past year in an attempt to reach Europe, most recently taking
advantage of a new route through Belarus.
Many are currently stranded on Belarus’ border caught
between Belarusian authorities trying to use them against European countries
that have been critical of Minsk’s human rights records and European Union
countries trying to prevent irregular migration.
(NRT Digital Media)