Balkan countries limit entry on migrant route to war refugees

(AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson). Migrants wait in a line for warm clothes as they stand on a snow covered meadow at the border between Austria and Germany in Hanging, Austria Sunday, Nov. 22, 2015.

The measures by Macedonia, Slovenia and other states are creating tension at border crossings and leaving some families stranded, the United Nations refugee and children’s agencies and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a joint statement. The media comments further that the country started selecting which migrants to allow crossing the border and which not. However, they are unanimous in their intention not to leave the location, claiming they have no place to return to.

He said “a lot needs to change if we want to respond to this staggering escalation of needs” and lack of resources.

Some 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.

“We simply do not have the resources for millions and millions of vulnerable people”, he said.

Ranko Ostojic, Croatian minister of home affairs, said he had “informed colleagues from Macedonia and Serbia that citizens [from Morocco, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Algeria, Liberia, Congo, Sudan, Pakistan] will no longer be able to use this route”.

The migrants have been camping in Idomeni for three days following a decision by Macedonian authorities to exclude migrants from non-war countries.

“Croatia is accepting migrants only from war-affected countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan”, a Croatian police spokeswoman Marina Mandic told AFP.

Slovenia – the next country in the chain – also said it has been turning back the so-called economic migrants.

The chain reaction was triggered by Slovenia’s choice to begin turning back individuals it considers economic migrants along the Balkan migrant course.

People coming from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan are therefore allowed to cross its southern border from Greece.

The move could trigger huge border pileups of migrants along the Balkan corridor which has seen hundreds of thousands of people cross the territory as they head to rich European Union states, mostly Germany.

“We have to protect our country”.

Greece’s Deputy Interior Minister Yiannis Mouzalas visited Idomeni on Saturday and said Athens is willing to give free rides to refugees who have been denied entry into Macedonia to go back to the Greek capital.

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

The Romanian police said border controls had been temporarily increased “to prevent people from conflict zones who could carry out activities that are a real threat to internal and foreign security”.