Iraq’s repatriation of citizens trapped on the Belarus-Poland border has saved them from exposure to the harsh winter of northern Europe but is certain to have deepened their misery as soon as they returned home.

Individuals and families had paid from $3,000 to $14,000 for flights and visas to enter Belarus in the expectation that they would be able to cross the border into Poland easily and move on to Germany, the desired destination.

Many returnees would have borrowed sums from family and friends, who hoped once the travellers reached Germany, Scandinavia, or the Baltic states they would find jobs and eventually repay their debts. They return empty-handed, indebted. Defeated by Belarusian lies, Poland’s refusal to admit them, and European reluctance to accept a new wave of migrants. Absorbing them is difficult endeavour and takes time and money at a time European governments have focused on containing the COVID pandemic.  

The initial repatriation flight from Minsk paused at Irbil, in Iraq’s Kurdish autonomous region, before continuing to Baghdad. This is because 390 of the 430 got off at Irbil as the majority were Kurds from this region which, during the US occupation was the most stable, peaceful and prosperous area of Iraq.

Following the 2003 US invasion and occupation, the 16 Arab-majority governates which were ruled from Baghdad became battlegrounds between US troops and a variety of insurgents while politicians and officials promoted by Washington mismanaged the country and indulged in rampant corruption.

Since the three governates — Irbil, Suleimaniya, and Dohuk - in the Kurdish region were relatively stable and corruption was then less flagrant than elsewhere, many Iraqi Arab and Kurdish professionals and business people moved to the Kurdish area where they brought essential expertise and investment to an area long neglected by Baghdad. The Kurdish region flourished.

Multistorey blocks rose in Irbil, malls mushroomed across the region, technical institutes and universities proliferated, and the region prospered.

This is no longer the case. The Kurdish economy, dependent on oil exports, has been hit by the slump in the price, war-related damage to the region’s infrastructure, and the inflow of refugees from Syria due to the civil conflict and proxy wars. Iraqi Muslims, Christians and Yezides fled to the Kurdish region after Daesh conquered Mosul and wide swathes of territory in northern Iraq and once the US, Nato, and Iraq forces, belatedly, launched an offensive against Daesh in 2014.

The population of the Kurdish region increased by at least 28 per cent, trade was disrupted and investment declined. International humanitarian aid did not meet the needs of displaced persons and refugees.

Prices rose and unemployment soared among residents of the Kurdish region as refugees were prepared to work for lower wages than local inhabitants.

Mismanagement, corruption, and inequality between rich and poor undermined the economic, social and political fabric of the Kurdish region. COVID arrived in March 2020.

Since then there have been 371,000 cases and 6,700 deaths from the virus, with the largest number of cases in the 30-39 and 40-49 age groups.

Although there had been repeated protests against the regional government since the 2011 Arab Spring, the most serious demonstrations took place in Sulemaniya governorate in December 2020.

Sulemaniya, the base of the Talabani clan, is a more secular and progressive governorate than Barzani-controlled conservative, tribal Irbil, which dominates the Kurdish region politically. The Barzani’s Kurdish Democratic Party increased its representation in the Iraqi national parliament in the October election and is likely to name the new president of Iraq, a post assigned to the Kurds, once a government is formed and Barham Salih steps down.

Among the returnees who deplaned at Irbil were Yezidi families who have been stranded in tented displaced persons camps for the past seven years. The Western powers only intervened against Daesh in September 2014 after Daesh attacked the Yezidis a month earlier. Some 200,000 Yezidis fled Sinjar city and villages in the neighbourhood and took refuge on the mountains where they were defended by Kurdish peshmerga.

Forty thousand Yezidis were surrounded by Daesh in the mountains where families were trapped without water, food and medical care. Iraqi military helicopters dropped limited supplies. The plight of the Yezidis broadcast by global media compelled the US to launch airstrikes against Daesh, drop supplies for the Yezidis, and mount helicopter rescue missions. Turkish and Syrian Kurdish fighters cleared a safe corridor tor the Yezidis stranded on the mountains.

During this period thousands of Yezidi men and boys were executed by Daesh and Yezidi women and children were kidnapped, the women subjected to forced marriages with Daesh fighters and slavery while the boys were recruited as fighters.

While human rights organisations have called for rescue missions for Yezidi women in Daesh hands and Yezidi organisations have managed to free some, many remain captive or have been killed while thousands have been relegated, largely forgotten, to camps in the Kurdish region. Desperate Yezidi families were prime targets for travel agents, smugglers, and on-line recruiters seeking to convince Iraqis to travel to Belarus with promises of easy passage to Poland and nearby countries.

The lure of European asylum was a powerful drawing card proffered not only in recent months but last year when Minsk permitted Iraqis to enter Belarus without visas, making this one of the few countries to host Iraqis.

This offered Iraqis a chance to make a new life outside their conflicted country. Thousands arrived in Belarus and crossed into Poland until Warsaw closed its border, erected barbed wire along its border, and deployed troops to halt the flow of Iraqi and other refugees.

Nevertheless, the migrants did not lose hope that eventually Poland would relent and camped in harsh conditions along the border where winter has set in and nightly temperatures reach zero degrees Celsius.

Aid groups estimate that 11 migrants, including two Kurds, have died since the crisis began in summer.

Under international pressure, Belarus has closed the migrant camp in the forest along the border with Poland and housed most of its 2,000 occupants in heated warehouses where they can receive help from humanitarian agencies.

Although more than 400 have registered to return to Iraq in further repatriation flights, most of those remaining have vowed not to return to their home countries, leaving them stranded in Belarus where they are not welcome.