Hundreds more entered Macedonia from Greece yesterday.
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“It is necessary to provide a joint approach and from now on it must not be allowed unregistered migrants from Greece to enter Macedonia“.
Hungary is building a fence on its southern border with Serbia to fend off the rising tide of migrants. The police also deployed tear gas and used their batons against the crowds. In addition to meeting with his counterpart Nikola Poposki, a site inspection at the border with Greece was also planned.
“They are coming in large groups of 300 to 400 people and then travelling onwards by train or bus to Serbia“. Among others, government heads from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo will participate. The fence, which was initially to have been completed in November, was sped up and will be finished by the end of August.
“All of those dynamics point to a Europe that is not finding ways to cooperate”, said Alexander Betts, director of the Refugee Studies Center at the University of Oxford. Just 484 have actually filed asylum applications. On the other hand, Premier Gruevski is “a master” in the art of diverting public attention at home and overseas from his own problems with surprising manoeuvres.
“I feel sorry for them“, a patron says. In reality, many frontline countries give them transit papers or look the other way as they slip onward to richer nations within Europe’s borderless Schengen zone. According to the Macedonian online news site Telegraf.mk, it was not possible for the police to keep back the onrush of refugees. “We have relatives in Germany”.
“When the ten who were left there said they didn’t fit, the smuggler fired a round of shots in the air from his machine gun and yelled at us to go and get on the boat“, he said.
“We urgently need coordinated action across Europe”, he told ORF radio. UNHCR has, at the same time, received assurances from the Government that the border will be open to refugees fleeing conflict in their countries of origin. “The European Commission is against the construction of border fences in Europe as a matter of principle”, said EU Commission spokesman Christian Wigand, but would not interfere with Budapest’s decision.
“We honestly believe if correct measures are taken this is something that Europe can handle”, Fleming said.
“Refugees are safe and welcome here”. A similar picture is emerging in Jordan, where a recent vulnerability assessment found more than 85 per cent of Syrians were living below the national poverty line of US$ 3.2 per day. Very few want to stay in Greece however. But even these limited facilities are only half-full as most migrants hurry to the border. There are Facebook pages, in Arabic, where you can find all the information. Over the past week, the daily average was of 1,493 migrants. Businesses who attempt to extort or overcharge them are regularly shamed on social media. The majority of those heading for the shores of Greece and Italy are wrongly being labelled migrants when they are, in fact, refugees. This week a columnist offered her resignation from Danas, a national newspaper, after facing a huge backlash for writing that “strange foreigners” were a potential worry.
The refugees in Belgrade view Hungary, where the official attitude towards migrants is much less welcoming, as the final hurdle.
One man is eager to engage.
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“Let’s not pretend that what the EU and its member states are doing is working”, Crepeau said in a statement. According to UNHCR, Germany and Sweden have taken 43% of asylum seekers in the EU.
