Thousands of migrants still trapped on Macedonian border

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 won’t discourage others from following.

When the Macedonians turned them back, the crowd cheered loudly. Minutes after he spoke, a man approached from the Macedonian side carrying a small child, Yasin’s daughter.

After at least eight refugees were slightly injured in clashes with police, Skopje decided to allow a limited number of refugees in to continue their journey. Many of them are children unaccompanied by their parents, none of them registered in any shape or form.

A witness on the Greek side of the border told Amnesty global that Macedonia’s Rapid Reaction Unit, an anti-terrorist police unit, had been beating refugees and asylum-seekers who were trying to enter Macedonia, and firing over their heads.

– Thousands of migrants stormed across Macedonia’s border on Saturday, overwhelming security forces who threw stun grenades and lashed out with batons before apparently abandoning a bid to stem their flow through the Balkans to western Europe. More than 40,000 migrants have arrived in the land-locked country wedged between Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Kosovo and Albania in the past two months, Kotevski said on Friday.

Greece, particularly on tourist hotspot islands like Kos, has been overwhelmed by the influx – some 160,000 have arrived in the country so far this year.

Hours after Friday’s clashes, however, Macedonian police started letting small groups of families with children cross by walking along railway tracks to a station in the Macedonian town of Gevgelija, where most take trains to the border with Serbia. Some ate corn they picked from nearby fields. “They don’t care about our tragedy”.

“Until we receive a different order, the situation here will remain like this”, said the man, who refused to be named.

The backlog created in Macedonia, which faces criticism from aid agencies for not expanding capacity to receive and process the migrants, reached Serbia overnight, straining the country’s own ad hoc reception centres.

Final week, there have been chaotic scenes on the Gevgelija practice station involving lots of of migrants making an attempt to board the trains. “They are treating us like animals”. “Let us cross. I want to go to Germany”.

While migrants persisted to reach northern Europe by overland routes, other dramas were playing out in the Mediterranean north of Libya Saturday.

It was too soon to estimate total numbers.

There were several attempts to charge officers as anger and frustration grew among a crowd of 3,000 from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

And the tide will not end.

Operations are continuing and it is still unclear where the people will be taken, a spokesman said.

“They are refugees, they are fleeing civil war”.

Migrants and refugees would ordinarily be able to fly without any restrictions from Greece to another nation in the Schengen Area, but most are unable to pay for the expensive flights.