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'They play with us like footballs' migrants say after being 'passed' between Poland and Belarus

00:44

'They play with us like footballs': Migrants on experience at Poland-Belarus border on return of Iraq

Migrants said they were played with “like footballs” after returning to Iraq following a stay in Belarus as they attempted to cross the border into Poland unsuccessfully.

Hundreds of migrants returned to Iraq on Thursday (18 November) as the first repatriation flights from Minsk landed in Erbil and then Baghdad. Many had spent a lot of time and money travelling to Belarus, with women saying that the smugglers had promised them a better life, but they had “lied”.

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