Six men who appear to be from Iran sewed their mouths shut in protest of the new policies and wrote in red paint the words “Iran” and “Freedom” on their foreheads and chests.
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Nationals of other countries are being stopped – about 1,000 people are stuck at the main entry point into Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia from Greece.
The group of refugees had been at the border for four days, stranded after European officials tightened border policies in the wake of the deadly terror attacks in Paris, France.
Another man also started a hunger strike and had his lips sewn together, as well. “Shoot us, we never go back”, read one.
Police say 2,900 people crossed the border into Macedonia in the 24 hours before 6am today, down from more than 6,000 on Sunday.
Last Thursday, Slovenia tried to return 168 migrants from Morocco. “I will be hanged”, a 34-year-old Iranian man identified as Hamid told Reuters, explaining he wished to travel to “any free country in the world”.
Skopje imposed the new restrictions after Serbia and Croatia announced they would turn back migrants who aren’t from Syria, Iraq, or Afghanistan and are trying to cross into their territory from Macedonia.
A popular backlash against refugees is intensifying in the country that has taken in the majority of asylum seekers – Germany, while it has become harder to cross borders along the main Balkan corridor toward Western Europe. To that end, Macedonia will provide humane treatment to the people crossing through the country, but it will turn away economic migrants particularly because “the European Union itself has made decisions that they can not be granted passage”.
Monitoring groups say the numbers of migrants taking the unsafe sea route to Greece are falling and there have also been no boats landing in Italy for a week.
“You would not believe the cruelty that is going on in our country”, she said, describing the ongoing civil war in South Sudan.
Others lay on train tracks to block trains bound for Greece, and a report said one person attempted suicide before Macedonian police intervened.
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.
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In 2015, there has been a sharp increase in the influx of refugees seeking asylum in Europe.
