431 Iraqis were taken from Belarus

And Iraq made it clear that only those who want to return voluntarily will be transferred from Belarus on Thursday. The plane will stop first in the city of Erbil in northern Iraq, and then head to the capital, Baghdad.

Earlier on Thursday, information was received from the Polish Ministry of Defense that Polish forces had arrested about 100 migrants who tried to cross the border between Belarus and Poland during the night.

The Polish Defense Ministry accuses Belarus of orchestrating migrants’ attempts to cross the border overnight by destroying the barbed wire fence separating Belarus from Poland and the European Union, and urging migrants to throw stones at Polish soldiers to distract them.

Thousands of migrants have been stranded at the border since early November, aiming to try to cross into Poland and the European Union. The European Union has accused Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko of exploiting migrants in a power game against the West.

On Wednesday, Polish authorities and the Belarusian state news agency reported that hundreds of migrants had been moved from a cold and highly improvised tent camp to a warmer warehouse on the Belarusian side.