A second group of Iraqi nationals have returned to northern Iraq on two flights after spending weeks or months in Belarus trying to reach the European Union. Several said that they had suffered abuse at the hands of Belarusian authorities.
Thousands of Iraqis and Syrians have recently flown to Belarus, lured by a "tourist" package promising them an illegal but easy crossing into the European Union. When they realized that the Polish border was sealed, it was too late -- Belarusian soldiers would not let them back in. InfoMigrants reports.
Lithuania has begun erecting the first stretches of a steel wall on its border with Belarus. The barrier is meant to prevent irregular crossings of migrants.
Emerald* arrived in Lithuania in early July. This young Congolese woman lived for a while in the Pabadré camp before being moved to another camp, Medininkai, on the Belarusian border. She spoke to InfoMigrants about her daily life, between practical difficulties and despair at having her asylum application rejected.
Germany and Poland are among the European countries that want greater efforts to stop migrants from crossing the EU's eastern borders. But Brussels has made it clear that it will not pay for "barbed wire and walls" with EU funds.
Nearly half of the European Union member states want Brussels to pay for physical barriers to tackle the "political instrumentalization" of migrants.
A child living in a migrant shelter in Lithuania has died. The 11-year old, which had pre-existing conditions, had crossed the border from Belarus two months ago together with her father.
Two international bodies, United Nations agencies IOM and UNHCR, have called for "immediate access" to the Polish and Lithuanian borders with Belarus. Their demand comes after four migrants were found dead at Poland's border with Belarus over the weekend.
Lithuania has expelled five Afghan nationals back to neighboring Belarus in spite of an order by the European Court of Human Rights that they be allowed to stay.
The Polish Parliament has voted in support of a state of emergency on the border with Belarus. More than 10,000 migrants are in Belarus hoping for passage to the EU, Polish border officials say.
The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights has called on Poland to protect the human rights of Afghan migrants stuck at its border with Belarus. The migrants have been camped out in the open for the past two weeks.
Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Estonia said Belarus was "using immigrants to destabilize neighboring countries," slamming what they described as a "hybrid attack."