An unusual demonstration took hold Monday in the sprawling crowds of refugees and asylum seekers trapped along the Macedonia-Greek border, as a handful of migrants reacted to new travel restrictions placed on those coming from areas other than Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan in Europe.
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Lots of of migrants have been stranded at the border for days, after Macedonia & different Balkan countries toughened criteria for crossings. They will only accept those fleeing from the conflicts and not those who are merely looking for a better financial situation that Slovenia is dubbing economic migrants.
On the Macedonian-Greek border, hundreds of people were stranded in dozens of tents behind barbed wire, as Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans were filtered through fences and granted passage.
Abdul-Kadir was with a group of about 45 Somalis who did not know what to do after arriving in Idomeni, Greece, and finding a closed border. Others lose their cool, such as an Iranian man who tried to slit his wrists with a razor to protest the blockade Sunday afternoon before Macedonian police intervened. Dozens of would-be refugees from other nations, including Iran and Pakistan, carried out a hunger strike in a Greek village near Macedonia.
The group of hopeful refugees and asylum seekers chanted “open the border” at Macedonian riot police.
Milad, a twenty-year-old from Iranian Kurdistan said going back to Iran was not an option for him and his companions “If we go back we will be tortured and executed”, he told VICE News. “We will go to Athens and then see what to do”, he said.
“We will stay here, we will die here if necessary”, he said.
The Iranian government has disproportionately targeted the country’s Sunni, ethnic Kurdish minority with arbitrary arrest, prolonged detention, and physical abuse, according to the USA state department.
Rights groups have warned against conflating refugees with attackers from armed groups and have insisted asylum should not be granted by nationality but by merit.
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GENEVA, Nov 24 (Reuters) – About 1,000 migrants are stuck at the main border crossing into Macedonia from Greece, denied entry due to their nationalities in contravention of global law, the United Nations said. At least three have slogans painted on their chests, including “Shoot us or save us” and “Shoot us we never go back Bangladesh (sic)”. “Why can’t we go to Europe?” he said.
