Macedonia declares ‘state of emergency’ over migrant influx

Reuters reporters had earlier seen more than 1,000 Middle Eastern, African and Asian migrants and refugees – many of them Syrian – gathered in a dusty no-man’s land between Greece and Macedonia, held back by Macedonian police overwhelmed by a unsafe crush at Gevgelija railway station for trains heading north to Serbia.

Macedonia declared a state of emergency and called out the army on Thursday to confront a surge in migrants and refugees trying to reach western Europe, leaving several thousand stranded in no-man’s land.

“Due to an increasing pressure on the southern border… it is estimated that bigger and more efficient control is needed in the region where illegal border crossings from the Greek side have been massively registered”, a government statement read, as reported by AFP. The railway stations in Gevgelija and Tabanovce, at the two end of the south-north tracks, turned into makeshift refugee camps.

The army’s involvement would “increase the level of security among our citizens in the two regions and allow for a more comprehensive approach towards the people expressing an interest in claiming asylum”, said Interior Ministry spokesman Ivo Kotevski. “The decision was made in accordance with our capabilities, and the recommendations from the conventions which the Republic of Macedonia is a signatory to, and we intend to follow them”, Kotevski said. As the flow of migrants intensified in the past month, locals have been increasingly reporting theft and property trespassing, while migrants have been complaining of armed attackers stealing their belongings or pressuring them to pay for transport through Macedonia.

Until now, the border has been porous with only a few patrols on both sides. Unfortunately, the southern border, which is an external border of the European Union, was unprotected by the Greek authorities and the migrants were allowed to cross illegally. Hungary is racing to complete a fence along its 175-km border with Serbia to keep them out, threatening to create a bottleneck of tens of thousands.