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Macedonian police reopen border for a trickle of refugees Greece prepares to help up to 150,000 stranded migrants
(about 7 hours later)
THESSALONIKI, Greece — Macedonia intermittently opened its border with Greece to a tiny trickle of Syrian and Iraqi refugees Wednesday, leaving about 10,000 more people camped on the Greek side, with more arriving daily. THESSALONIKI, Greece — Greece conceded Wednesday it is making long-term preparations to help as many as 150,000 stranded migrants as international pressure on Balkan countries saw Macedonia open its border briefly for just a few hundred refugees.
The border bottleneck has left at least 25,000 people stranded in Greece, the first European country that migrants reach in smuggling boats from Turkey. As the prosperous but divided continent flails in search of a workable solution, individual countries led by Austria have imposed immigration caps that have caused a domino effect down the Balkan immigration corridor, which has been traversed by a million people over the past year. “In my opinion, we have to consider the border closed,” Greek Migration Minister Ioannis Mouzalas said. “And for as long as the border crossing is closed, and until the European relocation and resettlement system is up and running, these people will stay in our country for some time.”
Greek police say Macedonian police opened the Idomeni crossing three times Wednesday, each time for a few hours. They admitted a total of 240 people from Syria and Iraq — the only nationalities allowed to continue north. At the moment, some 30,000 refugees and other migrants are stranded in Greece, with 10,000 at the Idomeni border crossing to Macedonia. On Wednesday, hundreds of more people, including many families with small children, continued to arrive at two official camps by the border that are so full that thousands have set up tents in surrounding fields.
Hundreds, including many families with small children, arrive daily at Idomeni in northern Greece, where two official camps are so full that thousands have set up tents in fields all around. Greek police helped one man who fainted after being turned back by Macedonian authorities. Others waited stoically for rain covers, or food and other essentials in chilling temperatures, some expressing frustration with bureaucratic errors by Greek officials.
Syrian Ramasan Al Hassan said he was stopped from crossing the border after Greek police took down his details wrong, which meant the date of birth on his official papers and passport didn’t match.
“I showed Greek authorities my papers — I was born on July 24, 1963 — and they recorded my date of birth as Jan. 1, 1963. As a result, I was unable to cross the border ... It’s happened to others too,” he said, adding that the error was eventually corrected.
Mouzalas, the migration minister, met for several hours with mayors from across Greece, examining ways to ramp up shelter capacity. The ministers of health and education also held emergency meetings to provide health care and basic schooling for children, who make up about a third of arrivals in Greece.
Nikos Kotzias, the foreign minister, said the country could handle a capacity of up to 150,000.
“No one in Europe predicted this problem would reach such a giant scale,” Kotzias told private Skai television. “But this is not a cause for panic. The problems must be addressed soberly.”
Macedonia intermittently opened the border Wednesday, letting hundreds of people in, as European Council President Donald Tusk arrived in the country as part of a tour of the region for talks on the migration crisis.
Tusk, who is due to travel onto Greece and Turkey Thursday, is hoping to ease tension among European Union leaders — notably neighbors Austria and Germany — before they hold a summit on migration on Monday with Turkey.
“We must urgently mobilize the EU and all member states to help address the humanitarian situation of migrants in Greece and along the western Balkan route,” he said.
Greece has asked for 480 million euros ($522 million) in emergency aid from the European Union to deal with the crisis.Greece has asked for 480 million euros ($522 million) in emergency aid from the European Union to deal with the crisis.
EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Christos Stylianides said Wednesday he wants to swiftly push through a proposal to earmark 700 million euros ($760 million) in humanitarian aid to deal with the refugee crisis over the next three years. He said 300 million euros ($325 million) would be earmarked for this year and be used “where it is most needed,” alluding to Greece and the nations along the Balkan trail. EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Christos Stylianides said he wants to swiftly push through a proposal to earmark 700 million euros ($760 million) in aid for the refugee crisis, with 300 million euros ($325 million) paid out this year.
Macedonia says it will only allow in as many refugees as Serbia, its northern neighbor, accepts each day.
Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, visited the Macedonian side of the border Wednesday and stressed the importance of bilateral cooperation in addressing the migration crisis.
“We all believe that we need to adopt European solutions, but sometimes it seems to us that European solutions do not work,” he said. “So, probably, also bilateral cooperation, cooperation among countries, countries like Macedonia, are very, very important.”
A field official with the United Nations refugee agency on the Macedonian side of the crossing said authorities will soon send a train with about 500 people from the nearby town of Gevgelija to the Serbian border. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.
Jasmin Rexhepi, head of the aid group Legis, told The Associated Press that a group of about 50 Pakistanis remain trapped for a fourth day on the Macedonian side of the border between two razor-wire fences. He said Macedonian authorities are trying to send them back to Greece because the group crossed the border illegally.
Rexhepi also said that about 1,000 refugees — 750 Afghans and 250 Iraqis — are stuck at Macedonia’s border with Serbia, which has refused them entry.
In Greece, arrivals by smuggling boats from Turkey on the eastern Aegean Sea islands continue at a rate of nearly 2,000 a day. More than 120,000 have landed so far this year, on top of 850,000 in 2015. A string of hastily thrown-up transit camps on the mainland has rapidly filled up, and hundreds are sleeping rough in a central Athens square.
Authorities have restricted the flow of migrants from the islands to Athens’ port of Piraeus, where about 1,000 people still arrived by ferry by midday Wednesday.
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Testorides reported from Skopje, Macedonia. Nicholas Paphitis in Athens contributed. Nicholas Paphitis in Athens, Konstantin Testorides in Skopje, Macedonia, and Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia contributed. Gatopoulos reported from Athens.
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Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.