Iraq is sending more planes to Belarus to repatriate more than 800 migrants stuck on the border with Poland, adding to around 1,000 already collected since operations started, authorities said Friday.

Hundreds of Iraqis, most of them Kurds, have been flown back since repatriation flights began on November 18 from the ex-Soviet state.

Thousands of migrants have been camped on the border there for weeks hoping to enter the European Union, often in bitter conditions — with those returning to Iraq showing injuries from the freezing cold.

Another flight on Friday will bring 431 people, followed by a flight on Saturday to collect 430 more, foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed al-Sahaf said.

Most of the thousands of Iraqis stranded on the border say they have spent their savings, sold valuables and even taken loans to escape economic hardship in Iraq and start a new life in the EU.

The West accuses Belarus of bringing in would-be migrants — mostly from the Middle East — under the false pretence they would be to cross into EU members Poland and Lithuania.

Belarus has denied the claim and criticised the EU for not taking in the migrants.

Aid groups say at least 11 migrants have died on the two sides of the border since the crisis began in the summer, and have criticised the Polish government over its policy of pushing migrants back.

Iraqi family of Channel shipwreck victim mourn her death
Soran, Iraq (AFP) Nov 27, 2021 –

In a simple house in northeast Iraq, the parents of Maryam Nuri Hama Amin mourn the loss of their beloved daughter who drowned trying to reach her fiancee in Britain.

"She wanted a better life," her father Nuri Hama Amin said, still reeling from shock, just days after his daughter vanished into the freezing waters of the Channel between France and England. "But she ended up in the sea."

Maryam — "Baran" to her family, a name meaning "rain" in Kurdish — was one of at least 27 migrants who died Wednesday when their inflatable boat sank off the French port of Calais.

The shipwreck was the deadliest disaster since at least 2018 when migrants began using boats en masse to cross the Channel to England.

"We have no information on the smugglers," said her father, speaking from the family home in Soran, a town in Iraq's autonomous region of Kurdistan, some 3,700 kilometres (2,300 miles) away from where his daughter died.

"Their promises turned out to be lies."

Maryam, in her twenties, was desperate to join her fiancee Karzan, also from Iraqi Kurdistan, but who had settled in Britain.

– Grief-stricken –

Karzan was on the phone with her as she set out onto the dangerous waters from France — and was the one who called the family in Iraq to tell them she died, her cousin Kafan Omar said.

Shortly before she set left France, her father had spoken to her for hours on the phone.

"She was very happy, she was relaxed," he said. "She was in a hotel in France, we spoke until eight in the morning."

Since the shipwreck, the bodies of the passengers have been held in a morgue in France. Officially, nothing has been released about the identities and nationalities of the 17 men, seven women and three minors.

But at Maryam's home, around 100 relatives gathered to offer their condolences for her death.

On Saturday, dozens of men, many dressed in traditional Kurdish clothes, sat reciting a prayer.

Close by, under the shelter of a large tent, women in black robes sat in mourning. Maryam's mother was too grief-stricken to speak.

– 'Dream' –

In the house, Maryam's room is tidy, as if she had just left it.

Above the bed, two photos show Maryam and her fiancee at their engagement. A picture shows the young woman in a traditional dress decorated with embroidery, with a tiara over an elaborate hairstyle.

A bouquet of white roses lies on her bed.

Her cousin, Kafan Omar, said she had left home nearly a month before.

"She got a work visa and went to Italy, and then to France," he said. "We had tried many times to send her to Britain to join her fiancee, but without success."

Maryam was just one of thousands of young hopefuls from the region who have left home in recent months.

Thousands of migrants — many Kurds from Iraq — have been stuck on the border with Belarus in a bid to cross into Poland and the European Union. Some have returned on repatriation flights, battered by their freezing ordeal.

Many of those Iraqis say they have spent their savings, sold valuables and even taken loans to escape economic hardship in Iraq and start a new life.

Kermaj Ezzat, a close relative of the family, said young people in Iraqi Kurdistan were mainly leaving because of the region's "instability". He denounced the policies blocking their travel.

"These countries have closed their borders to young people who dream of a better future," he said.

Maryam's father gave a message to others wanting to head west.

"I call on young people not to emigrate and to endure the difficulties here, rather than sacrifice their lives to reach Europe," he pleaded.