An Iraqi Airways plane has flown with Iraqis from Minsk to Baghdad

Journalist Dominiks Vilčevskis on Twitter announced the departure of the plane from Minsk Airport. This was also confirmed by the outbound flight table at Minsk Airport.

Iraqi Airways announced on Thursday night that it would suspend flights to the Belarusian capital Minsk for a week, but on Friday an empty Iraqi Airways flight from Baghdad landed at Minsk airport.

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Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabriel Landsberg said Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein had assured him that the plane had arrived to take Iraqis back home.

Landsberg added that, according to unverified information, about 300 Iraqis wanted to return.

The Boeing 747-446 can accommodate about 500 passengers. How many Iraqis went back to Iraq with it is not yet known.

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The flow of illegal migrants across the Lithuanian-Belarusian border has been rising sharply recently. The total number of illegal immigrants apprehended since the beginning of this year has exceeded 4,100. Most illegal migrants are or pretend to be Iraqi nationals.

Lithuanian officials believe that the Belarussian regime is deliberately facilitating the flow of migrants across the border between the two countries, as Lithuania supports the democratic opposition in Belarus and has given asylum to its leader Svyatlan Cihanouska.