Turkey halts flights for some Mideast citizens to EU's door
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Turkey on Friday halted airline ticket sales to Iraqi, Syrian and Yemeni citizens wanting to travel to Belarus, which in recent months has become a key launching point for migrants and refugees trying to enter the European Union illegally.
The move, announced by Turkey’s Civil Aviation Authority, follows EU pressure on airlines to stop bringing people from the Middle East to Minsk, the capital of Belarus.
Starting from there, thousands of asylum-seekers have managed to slip into EU member nations Poland, Lithuania and Latvia since the summer, though many others have also been kept from entering or pushed back.
The crisis involving a large number of migrants stuck at the EU’s border threatens to become a humanitarian crisis as winter approaches. It is also creating another point of tension between the West and Belarus’ authoritarian regime.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/turkey-halts-flights-for-some-mideast-citizens-to-eus-door/ar-AAQCEzk