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Macedonia Detains Migrants From Greece at Border Macedonia Declares Emergency at Borders Over Migrant Surge
(about 2 hours later)
Macedonia stepped up security on its border with Greece on Thursday, blocking thousands of migrants from entering and leaving them stranded on a dusty field. SKOPJE, Macedonia — Facing a swelling wave of refugees desperate to make their way to prosperous northern Europe, the authorities in Macedonia declared a state of emergency on its northern border with Serbia and southern border with Greece on Thursday.
The government said it is proclaiming a state of emergency on its borders and deploying army troops as it tries to stem a surge of migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa that has overwhelmed the economically-impoverished Balkan country. “We made this decision so that we can ensure greater safety for the local citizens as well as comprehensive and humane treatment of the migrants transitioning through our country and asylum seekers,” said Ivo Kotevski, a spokesman at the Ministry of Interior.
Macedonian police spokesman Ivo Kotevski said that both police and the army will from now control the 50-kilometer (30 mile) stretch of the border in order to stop “the massive” influx of migrants coming from Greece. Thousands of refugees, many of them Syrians, Iraqis or Afghans, have reached Macedonia in recent days after traveling via Turkey to Greek islands and mainland Greece.
“This measure is being introduced for the security of (Macedonian) citizens who live in the border areas and better treatment of the migrants,” he said. Many of them have piled onto rickety, overcrowded trains that take them north to Serbia. From there, many continue on to Hungary, a European Union member, and then to the wealthy countries that are the favored destination of refugees: Austria, Germany and Sweden.
The measure could create a huge backlog of migrants on the Greek side of the border from which some 2,000 illegally have crossed into Macedonia daily. Hundreds of migrants from the Greek island of Kos planned to move into Macedonia in the next few days. In the past two months, 41,414 people have passed through Macedonia and received papers that register their desire to seek asylum, according to the Ministry of Interior. In the past 24 hours alone, 1,327 people sought and received such documents, the authorities said.
Until now, the border has been porous with only a few patrols on both sides. If the Macedonians seal the border, it would disrupt the so-called Balkan corridor for migrants that originates in Turkey and goes through Greece or Bulgaria to Macedonia and Serbia. Hungary has begun constructing a fence along its border with Serbia that the authorities in Budapest say is intended to keep refugees from entering the country. Refugees waiting for trains in Macedonia have told reporters this week that they are hastening to get to Hungary before the fence is finished and makes their trek more difficult.
Macedonia has become a major transit route for the migrants heading from Greece to more prosperous European Union countries. Almost 39,000 migrants, most of them Syrians, have been registered passing through Macedonia over the past month, double the number from the month before. The crush at the border on Thursday had overwhelmed border towns and transport, leading to increasingly tense and precarious conditions, the Macedonian authorities said.
Thousands of migrants were stranded Thursday in a no-man’s land between Macedonia and Greece near the Macedonian town of Gevgelija, from which they planned to catch trains that would take them to the Serbian border on their way to EU-member Hungary. A police helicopter hovered nearby and officers in armored vehicles watched the crowd. The announcement of the state of emergency indicated that the military would be used to restore calm and perhaps stem the flow of refugees from Greece. But the government emphasized that the border was not closed.
For months, the train station in Gevgelija was the scene of skirmishes between baton-wielding policemen and the migrants who were trying to secure a place on overcrowded trains. Macedonia and Greece have had prickly relations for years because Greece forbids the former Yugoslav republic to call itself Macedonia, also the name attached to neighboring territory in Greece.
According to Macedonian officials, the government is aware that the use of the military will not solve their problem. But they said it would help to keep order.
The practice of issuing documents to those in transit to other European countries was introduced two months ago to try to ensure greater control of the migrant wave and prevent traffickers profiting from smuggling people illegally.
Some nongovernmental groups concerned about the refugees said that Thursday’s move by the government would essentially restore the situation in which migrants were acting illegally and thus again become victims of traffickers. The nongovernmental groups have accused officials of lacking organization and capacity to deal with the crisis.
In early August, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said that the “challenges” posed by the flow of migrants will continue to increase — globally, and in Macedonia.
Even wealthy European countries are struggling to accommodate tens of thousands of refugees who have arrived in the past six weeks. Germany, Europe’s No. 1 economy, declared on Wednesday that it expected up to 800,000 new arrivals this year, a level of migration unseen since the end of World War II.