EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Friday welcomed a suspension of flights from Baghdad to Minsk after EU member Lithuania saw an influx of mostly Iraqi migrants from Belarus
CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th August, 2021) EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Friday welcomed a suspension of flights from Baghdad to Minsk after EU member Lithuania saw an influx of mostly Iraqi migrants from Belarus.
"Welcomed stop of flights from IQ to BY. It's is in our common interest to prevent the instrumentalisation of migrants and to protect them from being abused by criminal networks," Borrell tweeted after talking to Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein.
The halt in flights came two days after an Iraqi national died at Belarus-Lithuania border after being brutally beaten. The Belarusian border guard agency says Lithuania has been pushing back migrants in violation of the 1951 Refugee Convention.
Lithuania has accused Belarus of letting migrants cross the border to get at the European Union for imposing sweeping economic sanctions on it. The Belarusian president argues that his government cannot afford beefing up border security.
