After entering Serbia, the migrants, fleeing wars and poverty, are heading towards EU-member Hungary from where they want to continue further north to richer EU countries, such as Germany and Sweden.
Emina, a migrant from Syria who boarded a train with her 2-month-old baby, blamed Macedonian authorities for “harassing” the migrants, not giving them food or water, and holding them back at the border.
The rush over the border on Monday came after Macedonia effectively lifted the blockade of its border with Greece on Sunday, after thousands of migrants stormed past Macedonian police who had been trying to stop their entry by force. Some small children were separated from their...
The migrant emergency in the Balkans has shifted to Serbia, where hundreds are arriving every day after Macedonia decided not to block the border with Greece, resulting in an improvement of the situation along the Gevgelija border.
Some of the migrants had spent days in the open with little or no food or water after Macedonia declared a state of emergency Thursday and sealed its borders to them, many refugees from war in Syria and other conflicts in the Middle East.
The border was opened after dramatic scenes on Saturday in which hundreds of refugees forced their way through the barbed wire fences, many carrying small children, as police hurled stun grenades to try and stop them.
In Geneva, the global Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies appealed for “greater support for tens of thousands of vulnerable migrants entering Europe through the Western Balkans route”.
Amnesty worldwide led condemnations of the Macedonian authorities saying: “Every country has the power to patrol its own borders, but this kind of para-military response is an unacceptable push-back in violation of global law”.
(AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski) Migrants arrive at the railway station in the southern Macedonia’s town of Gevgelija, after breaking through the police blockade on the border with Greece, on Saturday, August 22, 2015. Saying they would ration access, riot police used tear gas...
It called on the European Union to “step up support for countries affected” by the movement of refugees and migrants in southeastern Europe. By about 7pm on Saturday, only a few hundred remained at Gevgelija rail station. But it is certain that these events...
Macedonia said Friday it would allow a limited number of “vulnerable” migrants to enter the country after sealing its border with Greece to them, leaving thousands of refugees stuck in no-man’s land.