Macedonia to Reinforce Border Controls

Meanwhile, in the border zone between Greece and the Macedonian city of Gevgelija, several thousand migrants were stranded on August 20, waiting to enter Macedonia.

Macedonia said on Thursday it had declared a state of emergency on its southern border with Greece and would draft in the army to help control the influx of migrants crossing the frontier.

The government said it expected that the involvement of the army to “increase security of the local population” and to improve the handling of migrants crossing the border from Greece.

Interior Ministry spokesman Ivo Kotevski told Reuters that the “official border crossings are not shut”.

Sealing it would disrupt the so-called Balkan corridor for migrants who start in Turkey and take boats to Greece or walk to Bulgaria, then make their way through Macedonia or Serbia en route to the wealthier countries of the European Union. Nearly 39,000 migrants, majority Syrians, have been registered passing through Macedonia over the past month, double the number from the month before.

For months, the train station in Gevgelija was the scene of skirmishes between baton-wielding policemen and the migrants who were trying to secure a place on overcrowded trains.

Macedonia appealed on Wednesday for neighbouring countries to send train carriages to address the demand.

Hundreds of migrants travelling from the Greek island of Kos reportedly plan to move into Macedonia in the next few days.

Greek media reported Thursday that the destination of a ferry carrying some 2,700 Syrians had nearly sparked a diplomatic spat between Athens and Skopje, when it became apparent that the ship was heading for Thessaloniki.

Hungary is building a fence to keep them out, angering Serbia which fears becoming the latest bottleneck in a crisis challenging European unity.

“The [Macedonian] government needs to provide an appropriate site to be able to shelter the arrivals properly and to ensure sufficient assistance”, Krause told Reuters.

In the Macedonian-Greek no-man’s land, people warm themselves by small camp fires as children play in the dusty scrubland near a white border stone bearing the letters SFRY, the acronym for the former socialist Yugoslav federation of which Macedonia was once a member.