Several hundred people were left stranded near Macedonia’s border town of Gevgelija last week following the country’s decision to grant passage only to refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, deeming those from all other countries of origin “economic migrants” and denying them entry into the country.
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Romania is not on the path that hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers have been taking through the Balkans to get to western Europe.
The protesters who massed in the city of Idomeni hailed from multiple countries – including Morocco, Algeria, Pakistan and Iran.
“When you have numbers of people backing up at any one of these points, you have a problem with insufficient accommodation and that as we head into winter is a serious, serious worry”, he warned. Slovenia later allowed them to proceed towards Austria.
The United Nations refugee agency says three Balkan countries have shut their borders for migrants from states that are not directly engulfed in wars.
Overnight, police led a few 4,000 people into Macedonia by routes circumventing Idomeni, after migrants who are not being allowed in blocked the official crossing to complain about being excluded.
Also Friday, Macedonia’s prime minister spoke with his Hungarian counterpart, who said uncontrolled migration poses a “direct risk” to all European citizens and has already claimed lives in the continent.
“Over the past days more and more people are arriving for whom we have reason to believe that they are economic migrants”, spokesman Drago Menegalija said in a written statement to Reuters. “We are not terrorists” and “We are not going back”.
“It is important that every individual who is seeking asylum has access to a fair and efficient asylum procedure, regardless of their nationality”, the spokeswoman said.
The new restrictions are the latest in a series of cascading border closures in Europe, starting with Hungary’s border closure with Serbia on September 15, followed by its border closure with Croatia on October 16.
Poland’s new interior minister says the decision by the previous government to accept 7,000 refugees was “wrong”.
And after Slovenia initially refused to let 162 Moroccans through, Croatia refused to take them back.
“We’re trapped”, he said from the Greek side of the border at Idomeni.
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The Romanian police said border controls had been temporarily increased “to prevent people from conflict zones who could carry out activities that are a real threat to internal and foreign security”.
