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The study, which reached Baghdad, reveals that the flow of migrants is coordinated by an entire network of travel agencies operating in Belarus and Iraq, and how the Minsk regime benefits from this. Migrants and television assistants interviewed by TV3 in Baghdad reveal the cost of an illegal trip to the European Union.
Baghdad is one of the most dangerous cities in the Middle East. During the days it is 50 degrees, there is a constant power cut and armed guards patrol the streets to the teeth.
As soon as you get there, you are greeted by a cloud of black smoke: the city is rocked by an explosion that has injured a dozen people. This is a good example of why three million people have already fled Iraq in a decade-long conflict. And that number continues to grow.
Until now, Iraqis have been drawn to Europe via well-known migration routes through Turkey, Lebanon and the Mediterranean. We came to Baghdad to find out how and why this road suddenly became the border with Lithuania.
Migrants preparing to speak in Lithuania and organizing illegal trips to Europe reveal how this new migrant route fills the pockets of both Belarusians and Iraqis, and neither Baghdad nor Minsk have the desire to stop it.
There are hundreds of travel agencies in Baghdad that directly or indirectly organize trips to Belarus. There are dozens of them on a single street. This is where the illegal journey of some Iraqis to Lithuania begins.
PHOTO GALLERY. Exclusive Content: Baghdad Has Entire Travel Network To Belarus – Cost Of Illegal Travel Revealed
An employee of one of them says he sold 25 tickets to Minsk this week; there are no more seats on the plane, so another 75 customers are forced to wait for the trip. A week in a hotel in Minsk, the visa and plane tickets cost only $ 600 for an Iraqi. In other agencies, the ticket price is up to 1.5 thousand. dollars, but they are also being looted by Iraqis.
According to tour operators, the majority of travelers are supposed to be tourists who are attracted to cheap travel and fun that is not available in Iraq and available for free in Belarus: women and the beauty of nature. Tour operators claim that most customers return home within a week, however, for none of them is it a secret that some buy their tickets to Europe.
“Recently, young, single men, as well as families, want to travel to Belarus, because it is a beautiful country and now it is very convenient to enter it. Also, some of them are finding ways to get to Europe from Belarus, ”says Zaid Noor, representative of the Rayd Sharq travel agency.
An Iraqi airline plane preparing to take off for Minsk is packed. Passengers are outraged by the flight delay. Iraqi travel agency workers are not hiding: the flow of travelers began to grow when Lukashenko began threatening to open the country’s borders to illegal residents. These statements immediately received a great deal of attention from Iraqis seeking their way to Europe.
The reports of the Lithuanian news portals on the situation at the border, which are published regularly on social media groups, are of great interest. Only in the refugee group, several translated articles are published daily.
“Are you completely crazy there? They have started a hybrid war against us and demand that we protect them as before, “said Belarus’ outlawed President Aliaksandr Lukashenko.
The regime to pave the way for the migration route to Minsk began early, even before threats to open its borders. The number of direct flights from Baghdad to Minsk increased in May. Until then, two seasonal flights had turned into four a week, and Iraqi airlines have also decided to use larger planes. When Minsk was free to distribute visas, Iraqi travel agencies were left with only the slack on their sleeves and the start of sealing tickets for Minsk.
“Direct flights provided easy and convenient access to Belarus. This is a new country for Iraqis. A visa at the airport costs only $ 20,” says Z. Noor.
The largest number of travelers are investing money not only in Iraqi companies, but also in partners who provide visas in Belarus. It is they who send the necessary invitations for Iraqi visas. Some of these companies are directly related to the Minsk regime, others are private. One of them is the Grodno education and travel visa. Data from tourist tickets received and publicly available information show that the agency employs people of Arab and African descent. Iraqis who do not want to share their identities reveal that it is through this company’s partners that people who want to land illegally at the Iraqi border can easily obtain visas and travel tickets. In some cases, they are even encouraged to seize the opportunity to reach the European Union without difficulty.
After long persuasions, two Iraqis, Haydar and Jawad, who were illegally determined to travel to Lithuania, finally agreed to meet with us. In order to buy a tourist ticket for a thousand dollars, one of them claims to have sold a vital asset in a hot Iraq: a refrigerator. The men who were raising two and four children only agreed to speak to us without showing faces or revealing their last names.
“If one person sells their refrigerator, does anyone else care? We just want to get out of here. There is no life here, there is no future, there is nothing, ”says the 37-year-old man. Iraqi Haydar.
The men say they don’t have a plan yet to reach the Lithuanian border, but say finding help is not difficult. Iraqis and Kurds living in Minsk offer to take them to the border for a hundred dollars.
It is true that with the increase in the number of immigrants arriving, this number has risen to several hundred, and sometimes scammers who make money illegally ask for $ 1,000. They usually take groups of four to six people to the border. Iraqis who have no money are trying to reach the Lithuanian border: they persuade local taxi drivers to take long-distance buses or take them away.
“They told us that there are different modes of transportation to get to the border. There are people in Belarus who can help. The officials will be waiting for us on the other side, so we will explain the situation to them. I have no doubt that they will listen to us and help us. Even if we are arrested, we will ask for asylum, “said the unsuspecting man.
In a video, a group of migrants allegedly heading towards the Belarusian border is surprised that there is nothing on the road. As with many immigrants, a trip to Lithuania via Belarus is incomparably safer and cheaper than trying to reach Europe via Turkey or Lebanon, where criminal groups often engage in organized crime and ask for tens of thousands. dollars for the trip.
On social media, refugees share not only advice on how to better cross the border, but also all the news from the temporary refuge camps. The information that migrants are not being sent back immediately receives a lot of reactions from migrants who want to follow in their footsteps.
Haydar and Jawad also learned about their trip to Europe through Lithuania from friends who crossed the Lithuanian border illegally.
“My friends also bought tourist tickets for Belarus. There are good Arab boys who can help do that. My friends crossed the border two months ago and are almost settled in Europe.” They told us about this path and promised to help us come, “he adds. .
However, not all Iraqis tend to be confident of success and seek help crossing the border from well-organized criminals. Pretending to be Iraqis wishing to travel to Lithuania, we contacted a person of Kurdish origin in Minsk, who was organizing illegal cross-border trips in Baghdad. He claims to be able to easily process a visa for Belarus and a trip through Lithuania to Germany with a travel agency. For everything, the man asks for 13,000 euros:
“Please tell me how it works.”
“Brother, from here you are going to travel to Belarus. It is not necessary to pay in advance. You will leave the money as a security deposit until you arrive in Germany. When you arrive in Belarus, you will spend two to three nights in a hotel. Then we will take you to Lithuania and from there to Germany ”.
“I have heard that if you are caught in Belarus, could there be problems? Is the border with Lithuania open?”
“Listen, this trip is illegal. I don’t risk it. Everything will be ready. Stay in a hotel in Belarus. After 2-3 nights, someone will come to pick you up by car and take you to the border with Lithuania. It may take 10 minutes, sometimes half an hour or two hours, walking across the border. It depends on where you meet another car on the Lithuanian side, because another car will be waiting for you there. With it, it will go to Germany. “
Another group of migrants begins their prayer journey from Belarus to Lithuania in the early hours. According to the testimonies of many migrants, problems with border guards are rare on the border of a neighboring country.
Soon, a group of bloated men already filmed openly sends greetings from Lithuanian forest friends.
It gets in the mood. One of the groups captures images of Lithuanian farms. Behind him, the road attracts several migrants. According to a group of migrants interviewed by phone, Belarusian officials did not even try to stop them when they reached the border, but only urged them to disappear. In another case, when locals called the police, officials simply ordered the migrants to return to Minsk. The illegal tour operator we spoke to says there are no issues with officials when transporting people to the border:
“How will the car pass the checkpoints?”
“It just came to our attention then. Sometimes there are inspections, but don’t worry, it’s our job. We take care of everything.”
When we left Baghdad, Haydar and Jawad finally embarked on the journey. As far as we know, they have successfully reached Minsk, but here the connection with them has been severed. Only a few days later a relative of one of the men was contacted. He reported that the two men had already tried twice to cross the border, but fled from border guards. It is true that, having nowhere to retire and invest everything they have in the journey, they promise to storm the border and continue.
You can see exclusive images in the TV3 News report.
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