Al-Jazeera News :
Macedonia’s Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki has said that his country might follow Hungary’s example and build a border fence to stem the influx of refugees trekking through the Balkans to reach Western Europe.
The news comes as foreign ministers from four Central European nations are meeting in Prague on Friday, amid a growing rift over the refugee crisis.
The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia reject quotas proposed by the EU Commission, which proposed 120,000 additional asylum seekers per year to be shared out between 28 member states.
“We too will need some kind of physical defence to reduce illegal border crossing… Either soldiers or a fence or a combination of the two,” Poposki was quoted as saying in an interview with Hungarian business weekly Figyelo on Thursday.
He said his country was currently forced to let the 3,000 to 4,000 migrants who arrive in his country on a daily basis continue their journey to Serbia and Hungary unimpeded. “There is no European consensus on how we can handle this question,” he said.
As of 0600 GMT on Friday, an estimated 7,600 refugees had already crossed into Macedonia from Greece in a 24-hour period, according to the UN refugee agency. Peter Salama, UNICEF’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said millions
of people in Syria could become refugees and head to Europe if there is no end to the war.
Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel Hamid, reporting from the border between Greece and Macedonia on Friday, said the situation has settled down after tensions on Thursday. At the border crossing station, from where our correspondent was reporting, about 1,500 had crossed on Friday morning. They are reportedly being organised into groups of 50 people.
From there, public transportation will then take them to the border with Serbia, our correspondent said.
But overnight, the situation was tense, with “impatient” refugees facing off with the police.
“Macedonian border police had blocked their path and frustrations grew once more,” she said. “This is not the first time for the Macedonian border guards to use force.”
Syrian refugees Bassem, his wife Marwa, and their child Ali, were among those in the crowd. They left Syria 25 days ago, entering Greece through the island of Rhodes. Bassem and Marwa told Al Jazeera that they feared Ali would not make the Mediterranean crossing.
“We know it’s going to be difficult here, we know some don’t want us, but it’s still much better than Syria,” Bassem said. Along with neighbouring Serbia, Macedonia has become a major transit country for tens of thousands of refugees who trudge up from Greece, after risking their lives crossing the Mediterranean Sea crammed into makeshift boats.
Macedonia’s Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki has said that his country might follow Hungary’s example and build a border fence to stem the influx of refugees trekking through the Balkans to reach Western Europe.
The news comes as foreign ministers from four Central European nations are meeting in Prague on Friday, amid a growing rift over the refugee crisis.
The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia reject quotas proposed by the EU Commission, which proposed 120,000 additional asylum seekers per year to be shared out between 28 member states.
“We too will need some kind of physical defence to reduce illegal border crossing… Either soldiers or a fence or a combination of the two,” Poposki was quoted as saying in an interview with Hungarian business weekly Figyelo on Thursday.
He said his country was currently forced to let the 3,000 to 4,000 migrants who arrive in his country on a daily basis continue their journey to Serbia and Hungary unimpeded. “There is no European consensus on how we can handle this question,” he said.
As of 0600 GMT on Friday, an estimated 7,600 refugees had already crossed into Macedonia from Greece in a 24-hour period, according to the UN refugee agency. Peter Salama, UNICEF’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said millions
of people in Syria could become refugees and head to Europe if there is no end to the war.
Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel Hamid, reporting from the border between Greece and Macedonia on Friday, said the situation has settled down after tensions on Thursday. At the border crossing station, from where our correspondent was reporting, about 1,500 had crossed on Friday morning. They are reportedly being organised into groups of 50 people.
From there, public transportation will then take them to the border with Serbia, our correspondent said.
But overnight, the situation was tense, with “impatient” refugees facing off with the police.
“Macedonian border police had blocked their path and frustrations grew once more,” she said. “This is not the first time for the Macedonian border guards to use force.”
Syrian refugees Bassem, his wife Marwa, and their child Ali, were among those in the crowd. They left Syria 25 days ago, entering Greece through the island of Rhodes. Bassem and Marwa told Al Jazeera that they feared Ali would not make the Mediterranean crossing.
“We know it’s going to be difficult here, we know some don’t want us, but it’s still much better than Syria,” Bassem said. Along with neighbouring Serbia, Macedonia has become a major transit country for tens of thousands of refugees who trudge up from Greece, after risking their lives crossing the Mediterranean Sea crammed into makeshift boats.
