Hundreds more migrants leave Belarus on Iraq-bound flight

FILE PHOTO: An Iraqi migrant, who voluntarily registered for an evacuation flight from Belarus, arrives at Erbil International Airport, in Erbil, Iraq, November 26, 2021. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari/File Photo

MOSCOW (Reuters) - More than 400 migrants who had travelled to Belarus seeking to cross the border into the EU flew home on Saturday on an Iraqi Airways plane bound for the city of Erbil in northern Iraq, Minsk's airport said.

The EU imposed sanctions https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/us-restricts-dealings-belarusian-sovereign-debt-increases-sanctions-2021-12-02 on Belarus on Thursday after accusing it of flying in migrants, mostly from the Middle East, and pushing them to illegally cross the Polish border to manufacture a crisis, something Minsk denies.