MINSK: An airplane carrying refugees flew from the Minsk National Airport to Iraq on Thursday, reported Belarus’s state-run BelTA News Agency.

The route of the plane is Minsk – Erbil – Baghdad. About 400 Iraqi refugees were on board. They agreed to return home from Belarus after unsuccessful attempts to enter the European Union (EU) countries.

One of the refugees said he tried to cross the Belarusian-Polish border seven times. He was detained by the Polish police and turned toward Belarus. He said it was very cold at the border, and he decided to return to his homeland, according to BelTA.

About 2,000 migrants from the Middle East have been at the border of Belarus with Poland since Nov. 8, hoping to get to the EU and get asylum in Germany. To prevent them from crossing the border, Poland sent several thousand soldiers to the border.