Macedonia could close its border with Greece completely sometime this year, shutting down the so-called Balkan route for migrants, the country’s president has warned.
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Around 100 migrants gathered to protest the closure of the passage from Greece to Macedonia on Tuesday, but state-run broadcaster ERT reported that further disturbances have yet to meet the scale of Monday’s riots.
GENEVA A rapid build-up of migrants at Greece’s northern borders risks creating a humanitarian disaster, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Tuesday.
Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker spoke to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and European Council President Donald Tusk was on a visit to Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Greece and Turkey.
Austria, the last stop for refugees and migrants heading to their top destination Germany, infuriated Athens, Berlin and Brussels last month by announcing daily caps on the number of people it processes.
“These are temporary measures – there needs to be a permanent solution on where the refugees will be relocated”, she said, vowing that Greece would use “every diplomatic means available to find the best possible solution”.
Migrants have become stranded in Greece since Austria and other countries along the Balkans migration corridor imposed restrictions on their borders, limiting the numbers able to cross.
It added that Greek authorities had set up two additional camps near Idomeni for 12,500 people with the assistance of the army, and were building a third.
He and his family had crossed into Macedonia, but he said they were turned back due to Skopje’s new policy of only accepting Iraqi and Syrian refugees.
“Many people here are soaking wet from having to sleep out in the open, it still dips below 10 here during the night. It could turn into a very serious health problem”.
“I’ve been at Idomeni for 10 days and it’s the fourth day I’ve been waiting to cross over”, said Hassan Rasheed, 27, from Iraq.
By the latest count, there were anything between 8,500 and 9,500 people at the makeshift camp, which sprouted up parallel to a razor-wire fence erected by the Macedonian authorities to control migrant flows. “Majority are vulnerable women and children and we also have many many people who have disabilities”, said Vicky Markolefa from the medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres.
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Thousands more are fed by aid and church groups and the cash-strapped government, which received a third huge global bailout past year, has put out a call for private donations of food, medicine and health supplies.
