Blocked migrants protest at Greek-Macedonia border

Migrants who have been blocked at the Greek-Macedonian border for three days, protested Saturday against being prevented from entering Macedonia after new restrictions were imposed, an AFP journalist said.

Greek police gathered at the border but the protest has been peaceful.

Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia weren’t allowing in the so-called economic migrants whose countries aren’t shattered by armed struggles and wars. “United Nations refugee agency”, Richard said when asked about U.S. border security assistance in Europe. This meant that hundreds of people were stranded, either because they are from other countries, including Iran, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Pakistan, or because they do not have identity papers.

On Macedonia’s southern border with Greece, crowds of people were backed up, denied entry. The arrival of thousands more this evening is expected to swell the crowd to around 8,000 people staying in Idomeni tonight, according to MSF.

“We’re trapped. … They won’t let my family across”.

“We need to protect our country, and that is why we have brought in reciprocal measures toward those that Croatia and Slovenia have no room for”.

“Slovenian police proposed to Croatia yesterday, based on our bilateral agreement, the return of 160 migrants from Morocco who turned out to be typical economic migrants”, Slovenian Interior Minister’s spokesman Bostjan Sefic told reporters. Slovenia later Thursday said it will allow those migrants to proceed toward Austria. “This is going to be definitely a challenging situation”, Sunjic said. The border opened again on Friday morning, but only for Syrian, Afghan and Iraqi nationals who are crossing at a rate of only around 50 per hour.

“It is important that every individual who is seeking asylum has access to a fair and efficient asylum procedure, regardless of their nationality”, the spokeswoman said.

It is unclear what the new requirements mean for Eritreans.

Balkan countries have begun filtering the flow of migrants, granting passage to those fleeing conflict in the Middle East and Afghanistan, but turning back thousands from Africa and Asia. The EU’s relocation scheme is available only to Syrians and Eritreans.