Justice Minister Heiko Maas said authorities will use the “toughness of the rule of law to strike back” against rightist rioters like those who attacked police Friday night and blocked the road to an asylum shelter in Heidenau near Dresden, intending to stop migrants from moving in.
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On Saturday, the Italian navy, customs police and a Norwegian ship from the European Union’s Triton border patrol mission responded to distress calls from 22 boats off Libya, carrying more than 3,000 asylum seekers, DPA news agency reported.
That led to desperate scenes at the border, as men, women and children slept under open skies with little access to food or water.
Almost 10,000 refugees already entered Serbia over the weekend, while hundreds more entered Macedonia from Greece on Monday, confronting the impoverished Balkan countries with huge logistical challenges in coping with the human wave. Some 45,000 crossed through Macedonia over the past two months.
“Migrants, largely from Syria and other Middle Eastern countries, take small boats and dinghies from Turkey to Greek islands, such as Kos and Lesvos”.
His words contrast with Hungary’s efforts to complete a 175-kilometer (109-mile) fence along its border to Serbia in a bid to keep the migrants out, even though the EU country is likely to be only a staging post on the way to destinations such as Germany and Sweden. Some raised their babies above their heads to try to persuade the policemen to let them through.
Rayner says: ‘This flow of people is not a single move – it’s continuous. “They don’t care about our tragedy”.
UNHCR Representative in Serbia Hans Friedrich Schodder has told TV B92 that closing the border before the influx of refugees was “the wrong step”.
As heavy rain poured, some migrants took off their shirts and booed and shouted insults at the policemen in camouflage fatigues. The numbers had overwhelmed the main border railway station and the conservative government, which has a tense relationship with Greece, said enough was enough.
At the time, Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said his country “does not have the capacity to help so many people, so we had to intervene”. They are taken to special holding centres where their specific needs can be addressed. “I just want to talk to him”. Najip Zazal, an Afghan migrant, said: “People are very nervous because they have been waiting here for many hours”, “It’s scorching sun and there are no facilities here even for children or sick people”.
This week, Hungary said it would deploy “border hunters” at its frontier with Serbia to stem illegal crossings, and is building a fence on the same border to stop migrants.
Until now, the border has been porous, with only a few patrols on each side.
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The group are hoping to follow roughly 100,000 others who have crossed over into Hungary – their entry point to the European Union after the Balkans – which has responded with aggressive anti-migrant measures, including the razor-wire barrier.
