UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that the refugee situation in Macedonia has “calmed significantly from the chaotic scenes that you saw on your television screens late last week”, but the agency remains “very concerned” about the conditions the travelers face.
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The same study found an increase in the number of refugees who do not have enough food and are therefore adopting harmful behaviours to cope, including buying food on credit, withdrawing children from school and begging, which has increased 30 per cent since a year ago.
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Macedonian authorities to ensure an immediate end to the police violence against migrants at the country’s southern border with Greece.
The search continued Tuesday, a day after the coast guard recovered two bodies and rescued six people after being alerted to the incident when a fishing boat picked up a man found in the sea. People are continuing to cross the border in groups of up to 300 or 400 and are then travelling onwards by train or bus to Serbia.
The agency is working with authorities in Serbia to respond to the humanitarian needs of more than 10,000 refugees and others who have arrived in the country following clashes at the Greek border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia over the past few days.
Fleming appealed to governments in the EU to make sure that they handled the situation with sensitivity and abided by their worldwide obligations.
Numerous arrivals are in need of humanitarian and medical assistance, especially the most vulnerable, such as the sick, pregnant women and elderly people.
Unlike in the tent cities in Turkey and Lebanon, as the cold weather season approaches, these unfortunate people will require fully winterized housing in the north, and heating costs will obviously be greater than if they remained in the south. “Also, that essential assistance is provided”.
Over the weekend, thousands of refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border, mainly from war-torn Syria, as well as from Africa and Asia, were allowed to enter Macedonia to transit into Serbia and the European Union, following a several-day standoff.
“There are many liars here, claiming to be from Syria”, said Ahmet Mohamet, a 35-year-old Syrian without explaining further. She says there has to be a more decent and equitable distribution of these desperate people among the 28-member European Union.
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Although many more Syrians have tried to enter EU countries in recent months, their numbers in Europe are small compared with these four Middle Eastern countries. While this will not solve the problem, she says it is a good beginning.
