Prior to Macedonia, other countries on the refugees’ route to northern Europe, including Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia had made a similar decision.
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Macedonia officially admits only citizens of Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The US State Department is helping improve border security in a handful of European countries overwhelmed with Syrian refugees, Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration Anne Richard told Sputnik.
The move has left hundreds of migrants from Asia and Africa stranded in Serbia and Macedonia, but while those denied entry into Croatia from Serbia have been taken to an asylum centre, and those on the Macedonia-Greece border are still stuck in no-man’s land, hoping they would be allowed to resume their journey.
“This is going to be definitely a challenging situation”, said Melita Sunjic, United Nations refugee agency spokesman in Serbia.
Ioannis Kasoulides said after talks with his British counterpart Philip Hammond on Thursday that the transfer of the migrants from accommodation on a British base to a Cypriot housing facility may be completed within the day.
About 3,000 people remain on the Greek side of the border near the village of Idomeni, including about 1,000 Iranians and north Africans whom Macedonia is not letting in. “UNHCR does not think that there is any nation that can be excluded from global protection… each case individually should be screened”. A further 2,500 people are waiting in a camp set up nearby to provide shelter for those heading north through the Balkans.
In a sign of their desperation, many had launched hunger strikes. “We need peace and a good life”.
Slovenia’s decision to start turning back people it considers economic migrants triggered the chain reaction along the Balkan migrant route.
“The nightmare scenario has started to develop where Greece is turned from a transit country to a holding country due to the domino effect of European nations closing their borders”, said Dimitris Christopoulos, vice-president of the global Federation for Human Rights.
“We have to protect our country”.
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Associated Press writers Elena Becatoros in Athens, Costas Kantouris in Idomeni, and Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia, contributed.
