Iraqi Migrant

Hundreds of Iraqis who failed to enter the EU from Belarus returned home Thursday, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that Belarus's attempt to "weaponise migration" had to stop.

Turkey banned Syrian, Yemeni and Iraqi citizens from flights to Belarus' capital Minsk on Friday, potentially closing off one of the routes used by migrants that the EU says have been flown in by Belarus to create a deliberate humanitarian crisis.

Yassin Najem knows he has to start again from scratch. His home in Mosul has been bombed, and for him and thousands more displaced Iraqis, returning remains a distant dream.

The scene was hardly conducive to romance: she was a sick Iraqi in a wave of refugees trying to enter Serbia, while he belonged to the stern Macedonian police force keeping guard.

Disappointment, simple homesickness and even the high cost of cigarettes are pushing a growing number of Iraqis to return home after risking everything to reach Europe last year.

An Iraqi migrant to Finland has been found guilty of committing a war crime after he posted images of himself on Facebook with the head of an ISIS fighter.

Interviews with 20 relatives, in Iraqi Kurdistan, in Istanbul, in five German towns and by phone in Syria, tell a story of a family chewed up by one party to the Syrian conflict after another: the Syrian government, the Islamic State, neighboring countries, the West.

Hussam al-Roustom lost everything in Syria. After fleeing the horrors of war, he's working 12-hour night shifts in a bakery, learning English and watching his children flourish in America.

Finland has tightened its criteria for granting asylum to Iraqi migrants, the country's immigration authority said Tuesday, after deeming Iraq safer than before.

The European Union wants more Turkish cooperation with Greece and other EU neighbours to stem migration flows and in return is ready to offer more funding for Syrian and Iraqi refugees in Turkey under an EU plan published on Tuesday.

"I hate you, Hungary! Thank you, Serbia," said one Iraqi migrant, Hussan, clutching a stone as he rushed to attack the Hungarian police on the border with Serbia.

Hundreds of Iraqis who failed to enter the EU from Belarus returned home Thursday, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that Belarus's attempt to "weaponise migration" had to stop.

Turkey banned Syrian, Yemeni and Iraqi citizens from flights to Belarus' capital Minsk on Friday, potentially closing off one of the routes used by migrants that the EU says have been flown in by Belarus to create a deliberate humanitarian crisis.

Yassin Najem knows he has to start again from scratch. His home in Mosul has been bombed, and for him and thousands more displaced Iraqis, returning remains a distant dream.

The scene was hardly conducive to romance: she was a sick Iraqi in a wave of refugees trying to enter Serbia, while he belonged to the stern Macedonian police force keeping guard.

Disappointment, simple homesickness and even the high cost of cigarettes are pushing a growing number of Iraqis to return home after risking everything to reach Europe last year.

An Iraqi migrant to Finland has been found guilty of committing a war crime after he posted images of himself on Facebook with the head of an ISIS fighter.

Interviews with 20 relatives, in Iraqi Kurdistan, in Istanbul, in five German towns and by phone in Syria, tell a story of a family chewed up by one party to the Syrian conflict after another: the Syrian government, the Islamic State, neighboring countries, the West.

Hussam al-Roustom lost everything in Syria. After fleeing the horrors of war, he's working 12-hour night shifts in a bakery, learning English and watching his children flourish in America.

Finland has tightened its criteria for granting asylum to Iraqi migrants, the country's immigration authority said Tuesday, after deeming Iraq safer than before.

The European Union wants more Turkish cooperation with Greece and other EU neighbours to stem migration flows and in return is ready to offer more funding for Syrian and Iraqi refugees in Turkey under an EU plan published on Tuesday.

"I hate you, Hungary! Thank you, Serbia," said one Iraqi migrant, Hussan, clutching a stone as he rushed to attack the Hungarian police on the border with Serbia.