On Saturday, about 2,000 rain-soaked migrants rushed past baton-wielding Macedonian officers, who had been sealing the border for three days.
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About 7,000 mostly Syrian migrants, including many women with babies and children, crossed into Serbia by yesterday morning.
The “western Balkans route” has now become one of the main ways into the EU for the several hundreds of thousands of migrants entering the bloc this year, fleeing war, poverty and persecution in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.
There were scuffles between Macedonian police and the incoming migrants on the border with Greece.
Macedonia had on Thursday declared a state of emergency and sealed off its border to halt the influx, leaving thousands stranded in no-man’s land.
Police subsequently seemed to regain control of the situation, stopping the flow of people after hurling a dozen stun grenades in some 30 minutes. Police initially gave chase and turned a few back, but thanks to the sheer number of migrants were soon overwhelmed. Most head from Greece to Macedonia, where they cram onto trains and head through Serbia and Hungary on their way to more prosperous EU countries such as Germany, the Netherlands or Sweden.
At the Gevgelija railway station, UNHCR’s legal team is providing advice and counselling on documentation, registration and asylum procedures for those heading north by train to Serbia.
“Macedonian authorities should be protecting migrants, including children and those among them who may be fleeing war and persecution, not giving the police a green light to fire at them“, Emina Cerimovic, research fellow at the rights group, said in a statement.
The backlog created in Macedonia, which faces criticism from aid agencies for not expanding capacity to receive and process the migrants, reached Serbia overnight, straining the country’s own ad hoc reception centres.
It takes around four hours by train to reach Tabanovce on Macedonia’s northern border with Serbia, some 180 kilometres (110 miles) away.
Greece’s coast guard recovered the bodies of two men, rescued six people and was searching for at least five more missing off the coast of the eastern Aegean island of Lesbos after the dinghy they were using to enter Greece from Turkey overturned early Monday.
Macedonia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Nikola Poposki, last Saturday reiterated appeals aimed at the European Commission, asking for greater assistance and a more organised Europe-wide approach to dealing with the enormous influx of migrants. About 45,000 have crossed through Macedonia in the past two months.
Police and security remained at the border yesterday, checking the refugees’ belongings and bags as they allowed them to pass through.
However, their journey is far from over – and there are fears that a risky bottleneck will begin to form in northern Serbia, as the migrants try to cross over the next border into Hungary.
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Kurz noted that under EU treaties, known as the Dublin accords, asylum- seekers are supposed to apply for asylum in the first EU country they reach.
