Iraqi Airways Suspends Flights To Minsk For One Week

CAIRO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th August, 2021) Iraqi Airways, the country's national carrier, has temporarily suspended flights to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where an Iraqi migrant died earlier this week after allegedly beaten and forced out of Lithuania, the company said on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, EU Ambassador in Baghdad Martin Huth said that flights from Iraq to Belarus would be suspended for 10 days to contain the flow of migrants.

"All flights departing to Minsk are canceled for a week from August 5. Flights departing from Belarus to Iraq remain in force," Iraqi Airways said in a message received by Sputnik.

Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Al-Sahhaf said on Wednesday that the country's embassy in Moscow was closely monitoring the situation around the murder of the Iraqi citizen on the Belarus-Lithuania border.

The migrant was found with grave wounds overnight Wednesday and died while being given first aid.

Lithuania has declared an emergency over the influx of illegal migrants from Belarus, many of them Iraqis, Iranians and Syrians. Vilnius has accused Minsk of facilitating the transit of illegal migrants through its territory into the European Union in retaliation for sanctions.

Lithuania's ability to accommodate them was quickly exhausted, and the country requested assistance from the European Union. On Tuesday, the Lithuanian government ordered that its border guards return the illegal migrants back to Belarus, if necessary by force.