Hundreds of exhausted Iraqis return from Belarus to Irbil

Hundreds of Iraqis returned home Thursday from Belarus after abandoning their hopes of reaching the European Union.

They were repatriated after becoming stuck at Poland's eastern border, where thousands became trapped in a cold, soggy forest.

Of the 430 people who flew from Minsk, 390 got off at Irbil International Airport in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region before the flight continued to Baghdad.

One woman at the Irbil airport carried a bassinet with a baby clutching a bottle, most still wore the heavy winter clothes from their time in Belarus despite the warm weather in Iraq.

Many had tales of mistreatment from one side of the other.

Zeina Khalaf, a Yazidi from Sinjar, said after the Islamic State group destroyed her and her family's lives, she spent eight years displaced, living in a tent.

"So, we went to another country, to Belarus, but they were electrocuting us and spraying water and gas on us and on our children. All the bad things happened to us," she said.

Niyaz Suleiman, a migrant from Irbil, praised the Belarus border guards but accused the Poles of "using teargas on our eyes, and they were trying to push us back."

The differing stories typical of the dueling narratives that have marked the crisis, in which both Belarus and Poland have sought to portray themselves in a positive light while depicting the other as unfeeling and irresponsible toward the migrants.