Flight taking migrants from Belarus due on Thursday -RIA cites Iraq's envoy to Russia

A first flight to evacuate Iraqi migrants from Belarus is planned for Thursday, Russia's RIA news agency cited Iraq's ambassador to Moscow as saying on Wednesday.

Iraq's Moscow embassy offered last week to help evacuate Iraqi nationals from Belarus amid a crisis over thousands of migrants attempting to cross from the former Soviet republic into Poland.

The European Union has accused Belarus of flying in migrants from the Middle East and Africa and pushing them to cross into EU and NATO members Poland, Lithuania and Latvia in retaliation for sanctions already imposed on Minsk. Belarus has denied deliberately fomenting the crisis.

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