UAE bans some Mideast travelers from flights to Belarus

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Associated Press

BAGHDAD (AP) — The United Arab Emirates has banned travelers from several Middle Eastern countries from boarding flights to Belarus, cutting off one of the last major air routes for would-be migrants to a nation on the European Union’s eastern border. A travel agent in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Monday shared with The Associated Press a memo from the low cost FlyDubai airlines announcing that nationals from Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan were banned from boarding its flights to Minsk, the Belarus capital, requesting that no tickets be sold to nationals from these countries.