Скачать или смотреть Migrants queue at Minsk airport to leave Belarus voluntarily

More than 400 Iraqis sought to fly home from Belarus on Thursday, abandoning their hopes of reaching the European Union following more than a week of tensions at the bloc's eastern border where hundreds of migrants remain stuck.

A plane carrying an unknown number is expected to depart from Minsk in the early afternoon and make two stops _ one in the city of Erbil and another in the capital, Baghdad. A total of 430 Iraqis have registered for flights home, and most of those were already at the airport, according to Iraq's consul in Russia Majid al-Kilani.

On Tuesday evening, Belarusian authorities offered to move people to a nearby warehouse, where they were given a heated space to stay, mattresses, water and hot meals.

About 1,000 migrants were staying in the warehouse on Wednesday, while another 800 people remained in the makeshift camp at the border, according to the Belarusian Red Cross. It's not clear if there are other migrants elsewhere in Belarus.

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