Belarus: What routes do migrants from the Middle East take to...

• fact finding team
• BBC News

With several thousand migrants stranded along the border between Poland and Belarus, the European Union is considering blacklisting airlines believed to be active in smuggling migrants.

We looked at how migrants from outside Europe got to Belarus, how the EU plans to respond and here’s what we found.

In recent months, many migrants have arrived in Belarus from the Middle East, Afghanistan, and in smaller numbers from the African continent, in an attempt to reach European Union countries.

The latest data available from Fontex, the European Union’s border force, for September shows that the main countries from which migrants arrived at the bloc’s eastern land borders were Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey and Iran.

The numbers have been steadily increasing since the summer, and this includes only the crossings that have been detected and reported to Frontex.

There are regular flights between the Belarusian capital Minsk and all countries of the Middle East, including Istanbul, Beirut, Dubai and Baghdad.

The Belarusian state airline Belavia has daily flights to Istanbul.

Other national airlines make regular flights to Minsk, such as Turkish Airlines and Aeroflot Russian Airlines.

There are also a number of private airlines that have offered to organize flights this week to Minsk from Baghdad and Dubai, according to the “FlightRadar24” website, which monitors air traffic moment by moment.

A recent BBC investigation showed that a network of travel companies and smugglers, who often use social media, organize flights and visas to Belarus.

In addition, Belarus now allows visa-free travel and stays for up to 30 days for citizens of 76 countries, not including Iraq and Afghanistan.

There have been accusations that the Belarus authorities are facilitating these trips in order to create a crisis along the eastern border of the European Union by luring people with tourist visas. But Belarus denies these accusations.

Poland has even accused Russia and Belarus of trying to destabilize the European Union by allowing migrants to travel through Belarus to the border.

The European Union has touched on the blacklist of airlines involved in bringing in migrants, as part of measures to stop the accumulation of migrants along the borders with Poland and Lithuania.

Peter Stano, spokesman for the European Commission, said the EU monitors not only state and private airlines but also transit flights, which are sometimes arranged at the last minute.

There are no details yet on what action could be taken, but the European Union says it is already in talks with about a dozen countries on the matter.

Most of these countries are Middle Eastern and African, and the majority of immigrants have come from or have flights to Belarus from.

The EU also has a longer list of about 20 countries under observation, which it is also believed to be possible that migrants use as a springboard to reach Belarus and then into the EU.

This list includes Russia, where there are regular daily flights to Belarus.

In August, the European Union asked Iraqi authorities to suspend all flights from Baghdad to Belarus, which Iraq agreed to for a limited time.

During a session of the European Parliament last August to discuss this issue, it was found that there are still some flights between Baghdad and Minsk, and all tickets for travel on Iraqi Airways from Baghdad to Minsk were sold.

Frontex data showed a sharp decrease in the number of Iraqis observed crossing the eastern land border into the European Union in September compared to August, from 1,345 to 181.

We don’t yet have October numbers to know if this trend has continued over that period.

There are still flights by private airlines between Iraq and Belarus, such as the flight scheduled for November 11 from Baghdad.

There are indications that even if the number of direct flights from Iraq to Belarus declines, migrants are finding routes through neighboring countries such as Turkey or Lebanon to reach Belarus.

Belavia has already been banned from entering European Union airspace under sanctions imposed on the company following the diversion of a Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania to the Belarusian capital.

It is reported that the European Union is currently discussing expanding sanctions on Belavia to include depriving it of the possibility of leasing planes from European companies, especially Irish, Danish and Romanian companies.

Ireland said it supported more sanctions against Belarus, but that there are legal obligations in the current lease contracts to Belavia and must be respected.