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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.

With the increasing number of asylum-seekers and migrants arriving in the region, UNHCR appealed to all the governments involved to make sure that they handle the situation with sensitivity and abide by their global obligations.

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.

At the Greece-FYR Macedonia border itself – reported calm after chaotic scenes late last week – people are now crossing in groups of up to 300-400 and then travelling onwards by train or bus to Serbia.

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...

If they manage to enter Hungary, the refugees could travel freely across the borders of most of the 28 EU member states.

They were part of a wave of around 7,000 refugees whose journey to the European Union had been blocked last week when Macedonia declared a state of emergency and closed its borders after being overwhelmed by the huge influx of people, amid Europe’s worst migration crisis...

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...

Among the injured was a youngster who was bleeding from what appeared to be shrapnel from the stun grenades that were fired directly into the crowd.

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...