3000 migrants a day set to enter Macedonia

With the increasing number of asylum-seekers and migrants arriving in the region, UNHCR appealed to all the governments involved to make sure that they handle the situation with sensitivity and abide by their global obligations.

The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, said today it expects that the number of refugees crossing the border between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is to continue at a rate of around 3,000 people per day.

Fleming said that Macedonia’s refugee situation has “calmed significantly from the chaotic scenes” seen last week when the country called a state of emergency and closed its border, although it remained a concern.

UNHCR officials told a press briefing here on Tuesday that people had been continuing to cross in groups of up to 300-400 at the Greece-Macedonia border and then travelling onwards by train or bus to Serbia, Xinhua reported.

“Even news that a fence is being built in Hungary, anecdotally many refugees are saying actually we are rushing to Europe now because we want to get there before the fence”, she said.

Ongoing violence in Iraq and Syria and “worsening conditions” for Syrian refugees in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon are driving people to seek asylum in Europe, Fleming said.

Numerous arrivals are in need of humanitarian and medical assistance, especially the most vulnerable, such as the sick, pregnant women and elderly people. “Also, that essential assistance is provided”.

Over the weekend, thousands of refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border, mainly from war-torn Syria, as well as from Africa and Asia, were allowed to enter Macedonia to transit into Serbia and the European Union, following a several-day standoff.

Germany and Sweden have been taking 43 percent of the asylum seekers in the EU, Fleming said.

UNHCR has repeatedly said it is clear that this problem can not be solved by any one country working alone, and that a comprehensive European response was urgently required based on solidarity and equal sharing of the burden. She says there has to be a more decent and equitable distribution of these desperate people among the 28-member European Union.

It is expected that on Tuesday night about 1,000 refugees will cross the Serbian border with Hungary, looking to continue their way to wealthier EU countries.