MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/. Iraq has decided to suspend all passenger flights to Belarus, the country’s Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement on Saturday.

"Based on government decrees, the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority has announced the suspension of all flights from Iraq to Minsk (Belarus), operated by Iraqi Airways and all other national air carriers," the statement reads.

The Iraqi Airways company said earlier that its flights to Belarus, which, according to the European Union, are used for the transfer of illegal migrants from the Middle East to Lithuania via Belarus, would remain suspended until August 15.

Meanwhile, Lithuanian Interior Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told the LRT radio station that Iraqi Airways would carry out repatriation flights for migrants willing to return home from Minsk.

In response to the European Union’s sanctions, Minsk said in June that it was suspending its commitments under last year’s readmission agreement, which binds Minsk to receive back illegal migrants who enter the European Union from Belarus.

Over 4,000 illegal migrants have been detained on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border since the beginning of the year, 50 times more than in 2020.