“If they die, Europe and the world has to answer for it”. Lives were at stake and it was everyone’s business.
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About 1,300 migrants gathered in the Greek town Idomeni protested Saturday against the decision by Macedonian authorities across the border to turn away migrants who are not from war zones such as Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
“I don’t feel good now. I am going to be hanged”. These men sat down on railway tracks in front of security forces. He was put on an IV drip by volunteer doctors.
A group of Moroccans, Iranians and Pakistanis, stranded by a policy employed by Balkan states to filter the flow of people passing through the region, blocked rail traffic and demanded passage to western Europe on Monday.
“You can’t just declare all of the potential asylum seekers from one country “economic migrants” and send them back without knowing what they are running away from”.
Thousands of migrants who are not fleeing from violence in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, are being turned away from Macedonia, with many protesting along the Greek border. That has necessitated, it said, a process to differentiate between economic migrants and those escaping war. Not only were they stuck, but they were discriminated against by other refugees in the camp, who would not let them enter the heated tent areas provided by Doctors Without Borders (MSF). The migrants’ strike was held near the Idomeni Greek checkpoint.
While many travel lightly, each person carries his or her own reason for waiting at the border.
The silent protest. Young men from Iran with their lips sewn together. Affected Iranians and Kurds responded by first threatening hunger strikes. Syrian, Iraqi and Afghan refugees are allowed through.
Meanwhile Sweden, which has historically been one of the most welcoming countries towards asylum seekers, has also announced plans to tighten border controls. Eastern European leaders say it’s an issue of economics, while others say the anti-migrant rhetoric it’s fueled by Islamophobia.
There have been no migrant deaths reported in Greek-Turkish waters since November 17, “so we’re hoping this is showing a trend where things are starting to fall off with the winter”, IOM spokesman Joel Millman said.
Zehra, an Iranian who did not want to give her real name, said she was kicked out of her computer science program after her university discovered she had converted to Christianity. Our country is a dictatorship. “We can not go back”, Laj said. He almost didn’t make it. “Some of my friends, some families, sank in the sea”. “We are so sad for Paris”, he said.
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Ali, a nineteen-year-old student from Punjab in Pakistan, said he’d fled to Europe because of fighting between the Taliban and Pakistani government forces.
