Belarus clears migrant camps at EU border, but crisis not yet over

FILE PHOTO: A view from a migrants' camp shows Polish law enforcement officers, who stand guard behind a fence on the Belarusian-Polish border in the Grodno region, Belarus November 17, 2021. Maxim Guchek/BelTA/Handout via REUTERS

BRUZGI, Belarus (Reuters) -Belarus authorities on Thursday cleared the main camps where migrants had huddled at the border with Poland, in a change of tack that could help calm a crisis that has spiralled in recent weeks into a major East-West confrontation.

In another potential sign of the crisis easing, hundreds of Iraqis checked in at a Minsk airport to fly back to Iraq, the first repatriation flight since August.