So Rebin was back in Syria. He spent one day without food or water there. After that, he was returned to Erbil, from where the journalist immediately fled to his friends in another city, fearing for his life. Now he is trying to apply to the consulates of European countries to get a legal visa and leave the country where he is in danger.

In Minsk, I talked to many migrants. Most say they would rather die in these forests than return to Iraq. You can’t pass on the pain and the problems they face. They want freedom, they want a better life. They are not parasites, as it is often imagined, they don’t go to Europe for easy money. All they want is to be given an opportunity to work there. Among them, there are a lot of businessmen — experienced, skillful. In Europe and other countries, there are many Kurds, and in important positions. Among them there are many journalists, writers, artists, they help to develop the economy of Europe. Moreover, during the war [in Iraq], many of them saved the Europeans».

Assessing the scale of migration from Iraq through Belarus, Rebin says that, according to his data, about 15 thousand people have already received the same visas as him.

«Some managed to get to Germany through Poland, while others decided to go through Lithuania — and now they are in camps for migrants, their situation is very bad. Some returned to Iraq, realizing that they would not cross the border. Most of those who remain are now at the border. I think there are from five to ten thousand such people in Belarus now»,– Rebin says.

‼Migrants will lose in the battle between Belarus and the EU‼
«The main thing that migrants at the border need now is food, water, and warm clothes. Those people who I communicated with, among those at the border, say that it’s very cold there and every day it’s only getting colder. If they are not allowed to cross the border, it will be necessary to intervene with organizations such as the Red Cross, otherwise, people will simply die».
At the same time, Rebin Sirvan doesn’t see options in which the crisis at the border could be resolved positively for all parties.
«It seems to me that Europe needs to solve the problem with Belarus. We need to make sure that migrants from Iraq and other countries don’t go to Belarus, we need to close the way for them there. When this is done, it is necessary to accept migrants who are already at the border – and consider their applications. Perhaps they could be distributed across the EU countries. But I don’t think that’s going to happen. Europe will not accept migrants, so as not to lose in the conflict with Belarus. And in the end, the main losers in this war between the EU and Belarus will be the migrants themselves. I hope that at least they are just losers — not victims».