Migrants ‘stuck’ on Greece border with Macedonia

“If they sleep there, they will die”.

“I was a restaurant owner and I didn’t want to work with al-Shabab so their men beat me with the back of their rifles”, he said. As many as 800,000 people arrived in Italy and Greece by mid-November, and a few others in Spain and Malta. He was put on an IV drip by volunteer doctors.

It highlighted the complicated separation between the global community’s response to refugees fleeing war zones and others who, while classified as “migrants”, may also be seeking to escape hardship and persecution.

That prompted Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia – countries on what is known as the Balkan corridor – to do the same.

Oskar Deutsch said that among the migrants are those who have grown up on a diet of anti-Semitism.

At least six Iranians have sewed their lips together, hoping to persuade Macedonia to open the border and let them through on their way to western Europe.

“The risk of possible conflict between refugees and migrants, the migrants and police and army, and between migrants and local people is rated as high”, President GjorgjeIvanov reportedly said on Sunday after meeting with European Council president Donald Tusk in Macedonia’s capital, Skopje. “But they’ve been protesting silently and nothing’s happened – so that’s why they’re doing this”. Hundreds of migrants have been stranded at the border fo…

Asylum seekers are protesting new border restrictions put in place by several Balkan nations which the UN says are illegal.

Last week, Slovenia announced it would only admit immigrants fleeing the chaos in Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan.

“We are Christian and in my country, we have a major problem with the government”. Our country is a dictatorship. He added that he wanted to go “to any free country in the world”.

Milad has been at Idomeni for about a week. “Some families, some of my friends drowned in the sea”. “Although we do note a sharp decrease, we’re wondering if it’s going to start ticking up again”, he said.

Standing in the line was Betty Akol, 37, from South Sudan, with her 7-year-old daughter, who held a large orange balloon.

“Pakistan is in crisis”.

Late Friday night, Mohamed Abdul-Kadir sat uncomfortably by a campfire as his four children slept on cardboard boxes nearby. No one talks about that.

“I’ve been waiting here for eight days”. Proper information needs to be provided to people affected by decisions at border points, and proper counselling needs to be available. “Shoot us or save us”, read another.

“We are human too”. What’s the reason? It’s very unfair. One slogan said: “Shoot us, we never go back”. “We will go to Athens and then see what to do”, he said.

“An Iranian can qualify as a political refugee”, Mouzalas told state radio on Monday after visiting the Idomeni border crossing.

While the Greek authorities have sent police reinforcements Amnesty noted that they continue to fail to support humanitarian needs.?Tensions among nationalities have also been evident.

Fences to keep unwanted refugees out are being planned across the Balkans.

The new policy has raised questions from rights groups who are advising that asylum should be granted according to merit and not on nationality alone, according to a report by the Independent. “This is life in Morocco”, said Mohammed Nour (32) from Casablanca.

But others should not necessarily get to escape to Europe, it said.

The government said Tuesday that more than 80,000 asylum-seekers arrived in the Scandinavian country during the past two months.