Migrant crisis Belarus bans travel for Syrians, Iraqis, Yemenis and Afghans

Belarus announced that it would prevent Syrian, Iraqi, Yemeni and Afghan travelers from boarding flights coming from the UAE at the request of the latter, while the German Foreign Minister warned against "imposing sanctions" on it.

The national carrier of Belarus has announced that it is preventing Syrian, Iraqi, Yemeni and Afghan passengers from boarding its flights from the UAE at the request of the latter, after Minsk was accused of bringing migrants in an effort to send them to Europe.

This came in a statement addressed to the citizens of the four countries, which was published by "Belavia" on its website on Sunday, in which it said that they would not be allowed to board flights from Dubai to Belarus, "in line with the decision of the relevant authorities in the United Arab Emirates."

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stressed that his country "does not want a conflict at its borders," stressing that it is working to return migrants to their country.

For his part, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that "there is no escape from imposing severe sanctions on Belarus," according to the French press agency.

And last Monday, many asylum seekers tried to cross the border to enter Poland from Belarus, where there are currently about 4,000 asylum seekers at the borders of the two countries, according to the Polish news agency.

The European Union accuses Lukashenko of coordinating the arrival of the wave of migrants to the eastern side of the bloc, in response to the European sanctions imposed on his country after the "brutal repression" exercised by his regime against the opposition.