The Macedonian authorities will take action to redirect migrants to border points where they can be properly registered, Poposki told foreign ambassadors in Skopje, according to MIA.
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Three days ago, authorities in Macedonia made a decision to select the entry of refugees and this has led to thousands of refugees being blocked on the border with Greece.
At least six Iranian men sewed each other’s mouths shuts in protest at the new limits on migration and wrote “Iran” and “freedom” on their faces and chests.
The men, who say they are from Iran and threaten to go on hunger strike, have been camping on the tracks of the railroad between the two countries since Friday.
“We won’t go back to Iran”, one man had scrawled on cardboard.
Migrants barred from crossing the Greece-Macedonia border held a fourth day of protests Sunday, as Macedonia’s president criticized the European Union over the refugee crisis for a lack of financial support and data sharing.
Hundreds of thousands of migrants, many of them Syrians fleeing war, have already crossed into northern Europe from the Balkans having travelled there from Turkey.
Last week, however, Slovenia, a member of Europe’s Schengen zone of passport-free travel, declared it would only grant passage to those fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and that all others deemed “economic migrants” would be sent back.
Rights groups have challenged the policy, warning asylum ought to be granted on the foundation of nationality, not on value.
Economic migrants, however, will be turned back, because Macedonia is unable to provide shelter for them, Poposki said. “We risk violating human rights and asylum law”.
Investigators say two suicide bombers who carried out the Paris attacks reached France via Greece by posing as refugees, although their true identities are unknown and all other attackers identified so far were French and Belgian.
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Ivanov, speaking after meeting with visiting European Council president Donald Tusk, also said “the risk of possible conflict between refugees and migrants, the migrants and police and army, and between migrants and local people is rated as high”.
