Migrants at the Belarusian-Polish border in the Grodno region.Leonid Shcheglov / BELTA / AFP
PM:12:18:10/11/2021
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SULAIMANI — Representative of the Kurdistan Regional
Government (KRG) in Poland Ziad Rauf on Wednesday (November 10) accused Kurdish
migrants on Belarus-Poland border of telling falsehoods to European officials
that have harmed the reptation of the KRG.
Rauf told Voice of America (VOA) that as he has heard from
the Polish authorities and European observers about what the migrants are
telling to officials to justify their emigration, many of which he
characterized as "inaccurate and unfair.”
He claimed that some of the migrants said that they are
journalists who will be arrested and tortured if they stay in the Kurdistan
Region and that others said that the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) had
forced them to fight against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
"They have fabricated many other stories that the mind does
not accept,” he added.
Rauf said that there are no official statistics for how many
Kurdish migrants are in Poland, but that there are nearly 1,200 with Iraqi
passports and most are Kurds.
Thousands of people from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have
left over the past year in an attempt to reach Europe, most recently taking
advantage of a new route through Belarus.
Many are currently stranded on Belarus’ border caught
between Belarusian authorities trying to use them against European countries
that have been critical of Minsk’s human rights records and European Union
countries trying to prevent irregular migration.
(NRT Digital Media)
This story was updated at 3:15 p.m. EBL