OREANDA-NEWS. The President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that the European Union should pay for the repatriation of migrants from Belarus. «If they want to leave, please. We are their (migrants. - Ed.) we collect at the airport. Why didn't they send the plane today?», Lukashenko asked on Thursday, November 25, commenting on the cancellation of an evacuation flight that was supposed to take a group of migrants to Iraq.

When he was told that the plane had not arrived due to problems with paying for the flight expenses, Lukashenko replied: «So let the Europeans pay. Also scoundrels said: «We allocated money: millions and thousands..» Not a single penny has been received here. What is this flight worth?! And there is no one to pay. Let the European Union pay».

State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus Alexander Volfovich said earlier that about 200 migrants are waiting for evacuation at the Minsk airport. «According to our information, there was supposed to be an evacuation flight from Iraq today for the return of these refugees who wished to return home. The flight for some reason did not take place today. About 200 migrants are at the airport waiting for this flight», Volfovich said.

For many weeks, thousands of migrants who arrived in Belarus from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan have been trying to cross the Belarusian border and enter the territory of the European Union through Poland or the Baltic states. The European Union accuses Alexander Lukashenko of deliberately organizing the delivery of migrants to Belarus in order to then transport them to EU countries.