ANKARA, 14 November 2021, (TON): Turkey halted airline ticket sales to Iraqi, Syrian and Yemeni citizens wanting to travel to Belarus, which in recent months has become a key launching point for migrants and refugees trying to enter the European Union illegally.

The move, announced by Turkeys Civil Aviation Authority, follows EU pressure on airlines to stop bringing people from the Middle East to Minsk, the capital of Belarus.

Starting from there, thousands of asylum-seekers have managed to slip into EU member nations Poland, Lithuania and Latvia since the summer, though many others have also been kept from entering or pushed back.

The crisis involving a large number of migrants stuck at the EUs border threatens to become a humanitarian crisis as winter approaches. It is also creating another point of tension between the West and Belarus authoritarian regime.

On Friday, Russia sent paratroopers to the Grodno region in Belarus, which borders Poland, in a show of support for its ally. That follows Russia’s sending nuclear-capable strategic bombers to patrol over Belarus for two straight days this week.