Migrants protest at Greece-Macedonia border

There is a heavy Macedonian police presence at the border.

A refugee holds a placard (C) reading “Stop Racism” as he waits to cross the border between Greece and Macedonia near the Greek village of Idomeni on November 21, 2015.

The migrants have been protesting on the railway line in Gevgelija in southern Macedonia since Wednesday, when the authorities ruled that migrants from Iran, Libya, Morocco, Somalia and Bangladesh would no longer be allowed to transit the country. “‘We are not terrorists” and “We are not going back”.

“They should not allow in all of the people”, said Emile Tarabeh, a Syrian customs officer who passing through security screening near Serbia’s southern border with Macedonia.

Fears over who may be among the migrants soared after what appeared to be a Syrian passport was found by the body of a man who blew himself up during the Paris attacks; it is not clear if the passport is genuine, but it was carried by someone who arrived in the European Union through Greece and Balkan states in October.

Several European countries, including EU members Slovenia and Croatia and non-members Serbia and Macedonia, have declared they will only allow “war-zone refugees” from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria to transit through their countries on their way to central and northern Europe.

Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia weren’t allowing in the so-called economic migrants whose countries aren’t shattered by armed struggles and wars.

“We’re trapped”, he said from the Greek side of the border at Idomeni.

A few of the hundreds of migrants stranded in no-man’s land on Macedonia-Greece border tried to push their way through a Greek police blockade today. “They won’t let my family across”. And on the Croatia-Serbia border, Croats were only accepting people from those three countries plus Palestine, she said. “UNHCR does not think that there is any nation that can be excluded from worldwide protection based on their nationalities, but each case individually should be screened and processed based on the merits of the case”.

Ivanov also said that Macedonia has the capacity to shelter about 2,000 people in its temporary transit centers.

Slovenia’s decision to start turning back people it considers economic migrants triggered the chain reaction along the Balkan migrant route.