At the Macedonian border, migrants know time is running out

Syrian refugees fear the border will close. For north Africans it already has
Feb 9th 2016 | GEVGELIJA AND IDOMENI | Europe
Timekeeper

ON THE migrant trail at the border between Greece and Macedonia, everyone is scared. Refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan are scared that Europe’s doors are closing. Economic migrants from Morocco and Algeria, trying to pass themselves off as refugees, are frightened that they will be turned back and forced to take deadly risks to evade border guards. The Greeks are worried that if the Macedonians seal the border, the refugees will be trapped in Greece. The Macedonians are frightened that the Serbs, one step further along the migrant route, will do the same to them.

The point of arrival for migrants in Macedonia is a transit camp set up last year among the vineyards outside the dusty town of Gevgelija, better known before the crisis as a place where Greeks come to gamble in local casinos or have cheap dentistry work done. The Macedonians built the camp next to the railway line that comes up from the Greek port of Thessaloniki, which crosses the border fence next to a marker bearing the letters SFRJ—the initials of the long-vanished Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Nearby, a covered passage allows refugees to walk from the Idomeni transit camp, just across the fence on the Greek side, up to the checkpoint that brings them into Macedonia.

Since November only Iraqis, Afghans and Syrians have been allowed through. They show the border guards the travel documents given to them by Greek authorities when they arrive in Greece. At the moment 50 to 100 migrants are rejected every day because the Macedonians say they have fake papers, or can tell (by accent or other clues) that they are not from eligible countries. In both camps everyone wants to move as fast as possible, terrified that the path to Germany could be closed any day. Already the Macedonians are building a second layer of razor-wire fencing. “You can feel the fear,” says Jesper Frovin Jensen, the UNICEF emergency coordinator in Gevgelija.

But hold-ups are frequent. In January taxi drivers in Gevgelija began blocking the railway line out of the camp. Many had purchased taxi licences—at €1,500 ($1,680) each—the previous summer, hoping to profit from the refugees by taking them to the Serbian border. Then the authorities built a makeshift train platform next to the camp, cutting the cabbies out of the business.

To prevent obstacles such as the taxi drivers’ protests from creating bottlenecks, the Macedonian police report frequently to the Greek police to let them know how many migrants have been processed and sent north. The Greeks in turn delay the buses coming up from the port of Piraeus until the Macedonian camp is clear, regulating the flow. The entire system is remarkably well-organised. Nikola Poposki, Macedonia’s foreign minister, said his officials were in daily contact with their counterparts all the way up the line to Berlin. In any case, he reflected, the current migration is really nothing new: in their trek up the Vardar river valley, the migrants are following an ancient route “used by the Romans, Ottomans and Crusaders”.

For those fleeing the Middle East’s war zones, getting through means everything. Sena Suleiman, 38, is a Kurdish nurse from the city of Mosul in Iraq, controlled by Islamic State (IS) since 2014. She reached Gevgelija with her husband and three children, coming the entire way with a metal walker; her legs were injured, she says, when IS fighters blew up the house of her uncle next door. Her brother was killed by crossfire in the street, and another relative was beheaded. “I will never go back,” she says through tears.

Just 200 metres away, across the Greek border in Idomeni, Qamar Ahmad Noor, 34, sits on the ground with his wife Neelah, 23. She is due to give birth within ten days. They fled their home city of Lahore, in Pakistan; Mr Noor says he is a member of the persecuted Ahmadiyya religious minority, and that his wife’s brothers kidnapped her twice and might kill them if he does not convert to their brand of Islam. But Pakistan is not one of the three countries whose citizens are presumed to need asylum (such as Syria), so Mr Noor has no idea how to get across to Gevgelija.

The picture is bleak for those who fail. Every day the Macedonians expel people they have caught who had crossed illegally. Yasin Tasak, A 22-year-old Moroccan economic migrant, was sent trudging back to Greece with five other Moroccans and one Algerian, after they had walked 50km (31 miles) west from the camp to circumvent the border fence. When they stopped to rest, five men approached them. “They stole our phones and everything. They had guns. Then they let us go,” says Mr Tasak. After walking another two days and reaching a railway station, they were arrested by the Macedonian police, who, he says, beat them on the legs to deter them from trying the journey again.

Many of those who do not make it across congregate at the Hara hotel, down the road from the transit camp. Here they meet traffickers who promise to get them to the Serbian border, or simply congregate in groups to try the crossing again. Sami Ziad, 28, from Tunisia, says he has tried to get through five or six times. Pointing at a snow-capped mountain to the west, he says he tried to cross there with a group of twenty. “Two or three died. They could not walk anymore.” Eventually the Macedonians caught them, firing pistols in the air as they rounded them up. Asked if he might give up, he says there is nothing for him in Tunisia. “Personally I am not frightened,” he adds, “I have to go.”

Greece's defense minister says he wants an agreement with neighboring Turkey that would allow the European Union's Frontex border agency to stop and turn back — within Turkish waters — boats carrying migrants to the Greek islands.

Panos Kammenos said Monday that he has already made the proposal to his EU colleagues, who "showed great interest," and will raise the matter with NATO officials.

He said Greek authorities are in a position to locate smugglers boats as they leave the nearby Turkish coast and alert Frontex, and the Turkish coast guard. Kammenos said this would "stop the great migratory flow to Greece" and stop deaths of migrants and refugees trying to reach Greece in rickety boats.

Austrian foreign minister Sebastian Kurz says his country will not be able to handle the same number of migrants this year as it did in 2015 and will help Western Balkan nations stop them at their borders.

Last year Austria received 90,000 asylum-seekers, which overstretched its capacities, Kurz said Monday in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo.

"Macedonia is ready to accept the help of the European Union. This is unfortunately not happening in Greece," Kurz said, insisting that the EU offered Greece support but it was rejected.

He said last summer he warned that the welcome culture in Europe was correct on a human level but that it could encourage more people to head toward the continent, which is what happened.

Kurz noted that it was wrong for Europe to watch migrants arriving in Greece and then let them be directed further to non-EU countries.

Nisi ga ti razumio. Grcima je preko glave migranata. Sad to žele zajedno sa ostatkom Europe riješiti. Zaustaviti, ne preraspoređivati.
Iskreno moje osobno mišljenje je da su to Grci radili da im oproste dobar dio kredita i duga. Pa su skužili da su se jako zajebali, jer su turizam morali čuvati kao zjencu oka svoga. Ponašali su se neka susjedu crkne jedna krava makar meni dvije. Sad im te dvije poskupe. A i primaklo se vrijeme novih pregovora o otplati kredita.

Erdogan: Strpljenje ima granice, otvorićemo kapije

Ankara -- Predsednik Turske Redžep Tajip Erdogan rekao je da će njegova zemlja "imati strpljenja do određene granice, ali da će posle toga morati da reaguje u Siriji".

IZVOR: B92 ČETVRTAK, 11.02.2016. | 11:55

Foto: Beta, AP
Foto: Beta, AP
Erdogan je rekao i da je čelnicima EU jasno rekao da će doći vreme kada će Turska otvoriti kapije izbeglicama ka Evropskoj uniji.

"Mi smo zaustavljali ljude na vratima ka Evropi, zaustavljali smo autobuse. To se desi jednom ili dva puta, ali mi ćemo jednom te kapije otvoriti i poželeti im srećan put. To sam im rekao", rekao je Erdogan.

Kako je rekao, ono što je rečeno na sastanku sa briselskim liderima Donaldom Tuskom i Žan-Klodom Junkerom nije nešto čega se treba stideti.

"To nije nikakva tajna i to nismo rekli samo tada i tamo, to je rečeno u svakoj prilici", rekao je Erdogan.

U svom govoru, Erdogan je rekao i da Ujedinjene nacije imaju dvostruke aršine po pitanju krize u Siriji i da je neiskreno to što UN apeluje na Tursku oko puštanja izbeglica iz Sirije u zemlju, a ne reaguje u samoj Siriji.

"Licemerno je podsećati Tursku na njene međunarodne obaveze. Turska je uradila više od bilo koje druge države, to se vidi i po brojevima - ko je koliko ljudi primio", rekao je Erdogan.

On je pozvao UN da na isti način apeluje i na druge zemlje kako bi "Turska mogla da pošalje izbeglice u te zemlje".

Takođe, rekao je da ksenofobija i rasizam postaju normalni u Evropi.

Ali nigdje u novinama nećeš vidjeti izvinjenje Orbanu ili podsjećanje na ona pljuvanja... mediji danas...

Mogao bi Edo i sankcije dobiti. Pa onda ide "tursko proljeće" i znamo već kako dalje.

Americi trenutno ne odgovara proljeće u Turskoj.

Što će im Turci uopće kad mogu toliku masu poslušnih Kurda dignuti da budu sila u rekordnom roku.

Moraš mu se prvo ti ispričati. Sjećam se da si ga nazivao svakakvim riječima. Kad sam ja vama Srbima govorio da ne srljate na temi.

USA ima samo jedan plan a to je siguran transport nafte i plina iz Katara i SA u EU kopnenim putem,
na tom putu se ispriječila Sirija koja nije pod USA kapom. Jedno od riješenja za Amere je i transport preko
budućeg Kurdistana i time se zaobilazi indirektno Sirija samo za taj plan Kurdi i Turci ne smiju biti u ratu.
Zamršeno je to tamo daleko više nego izgleda.

Ti prevodijoci su ti 98% arapi koji su ovde vec duze ili mozda rodeni.
Kad je bio rat u nas neces vjerovat koliko je shiptara (?!?!?!) bilo prevodioca nama i koliko in je uhvaceno da lazno prevode jer smo mi djeca vec malo naucili pa skontali da pogresno prevode (namjerno). A koliko ljudi tako nije skontalo.

Sad nek meni objasni sto su shiptari nama prevodili i sto su lazno prevodili, stvarno mi nije jasno ali tko je sigurno.

A sta mislis sta tek ovi rade i kako prevode ?!

Rebellion? Eastern Europe ‘Starts Open Confrontation With Merkel'
EUROPE
13:56 14.02.2016(updated 13:59 14.02.2016) Get short URL

Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia have declared their willingness to block the so-called Balkan route to stop the influx of migrants to Europe, German magazine Spiegel Online reported.

According to Slovakian Minister of Foreign Affairs Miroslav Lajcak, it is wrong to rely on Turkey to resolve the refugee problem.

"As long as there is no common European strategy [on the migration issue], attempts of the states at the Balkan route to protect their borders are legitimate," Lajcak said, cited by the magazine.

When it comes to Europe's problems, European states cannot rely on Turkey, the diplomat stated. Lajcak also questioned the effectiveness of the distribution of refugees between the EU countries.

"It has just become an additional stimulus for the migration," he said.

Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia are going to support Macedonia, who announced the closure of its border with Greece due to the ongoing inflow of refugees in order to block the so called Balkan route, the main itinerary used by refugees to reach Western Europe.

According to the article, in this way Eastern European states have "started an open confrontation" with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the refugee issue.

Earlier, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said that his country would close the borders for refugees, after receiving a quota of 37 thousand people. After that, Macedonia will have to stop the inflow of migrants. The foreign minister promised to assist Macedonia in the resolution of the problem and send the police and military forces to the country if necessary.