Thousands of migrants stuck on Belarus-EU border

In recent weeks, thousands of migrants, mainly from Iraq, have been flying to Belarus on tourist visas before attempting to cross over into neighbouring EU countries Lithuania, Poland and most recently Latvia. The EU accuses Belarus’ authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko of encouraging irregular migration in an attempt to blackmail the EU into withdrawing sanctions against his regime. But as Belarus’ EU neighbours have tightened controls along their frontiers, migrants are finding it ever more difficult to make the crossing – and in many cases Belarus seems unwilling to let them back in.