Reuters, Geneva :The United Nations on Tuesday condemned new restrictions on refugees that have left around 1,000 migrants stuck at the main border crossing into Macedonia from Greece, denied entry due to their nationalities in violation of international law.”Profiling asylum seekers on the basis of their alleged nationality infringes the human right of all people to seek asylum, irrespective of their nationality and to have their individual cases heard,” U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said in a statement issued by his press office.He urged nations to “respond with compassion, solidarity and shared responsibility.”Balkan countries have clamped down at their borders recently to stem what has been an anarchic, largely unchecked stream of humanity into Europe this year. But there were signs on Tuesday that the tide was starting to ebb somewhat – although relief officials cautioned that it was too early to declare a trend.”Talk about a sharp drop in the number of refugee arrivals to Greece may be premature. UNHCR staff on Lesbos (island) report that over 40 dinghies carrying an estimated 2,000 refugees and migrants arrived last night (Monday) and today,” U.N. refugee agency spokesman William Spindler told Reuters.The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported earlier that the number of refugees and migrants reaching Greek islands, the most common entry point to Europe, fell to 155 on Sunday while 478 arrived at the ports of Athens and Kavala – far fewer than the daily average for the past few months.”The drop is significant given that, according to IOM estimates, some 100,000 migrants have crossed into Greece since the beginning of November – averaging around 4,500 crossings per day,” an IOM statement said. There have also been no migrant boats landing in Italy, the other main gateway into Europe, since Nov. 19, it added.Increasingly stormy winter weather is making crossings by sea to Europe more dangerous, and refugees trekking northwards through the Balkans are now exposed to freezing cold and snow.Traditional refugee haven Sweden announced it will tighten border controls and asylum rules to stem the flood of asylum seekers into the Nordic country and force other EU nations to accept a bigger share of refugees.A popular backlash against refugees is intensifying in the country that has taken in the majority of asylum seekers – Germany, while it has become harder to cross borders along the main Balkan corridor toward Western Europe.Macedonia’s refusal to admit 1,000 migrants was part of a new policy by Balkan states to filter the flow by granting passage onwards towards western Europe only to those fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, who are seen as genuine asylum seekers rather than “economic migrants”.U.N. officials said the new, uncoordinated obstacles that have stranded migrants on several frontiers in the Balkans threatened a “new humanitarian situation” that required urgent attention given the onset of winter.
