sábado, 28 de novembro de 2015

Macedónia fecha fronteira com a Grécia com arame farpado / Macedonia builds fence on Greek border to control refugees

Macedónia fecha fronteira com a Grécia com arame farpado
PÚBLICO e REUTERS 28/11/2015 - 09:30 (actualizado às 13:04) / PÚBLICO

Exército macedónio começou a erguer uma cerca na fronteira do sul do país, num ponto onde os migrantes atravessam.

O exército macedónio começou a erguer uma cerca de arame farpado neste sábado, na fronteira sul com a Grécia, num ponto por onde os migrantes atravessar em direcção à Europa Ocidental. O relato é de um repórter fotográfico da Reuters no local.

Esta barreira, feita com postes de metal e arame farpado, é semelhante à que a Hungria ergueu na fronteira sul com a Sérvia e a Croácia para travar a passagem dos migrantes, oriundos da Síria, Afeganistão e Iraque. Estes chegam da Grécia e da Turquia. Contudo não são os únicos, havendo nacionais de outros países a quererem atravessar, como os iranianos, paquistaneses, marroquinos e outros.

Recorde-se que nesta semana, um grupo de refugiados que foram barrados na Macedónia manifestou-se despindo-se e enfrentando assim temperaturas muito baixas e coseram os lábios, como forma de luta para atravessarem a fronteira.

Um porta-voz do governo explicou à Reuters que o objectivo da nova barreira é “direccionar o fluxo de pessoas em direcção aos pontos controlados de entrada no país para que possam ser registadas e tradas humanamente”. Aleksandar Gjorgjiev quis ainda sublinhar que “a fronteira vai continuar aberta” e que a Macedónia vai continuar “a autorizar a passagem de pessoas que vêm de regiões afectadas pela guerra tal como fez até agora”.

Macedonia builds fence on Greek border to control refugees

Migrants fleeing war are still allowed access, the government says.

By CYNTHIA KROET 11/28/15, 12:21 PM CET

The Macedonian army on Saturday started building a fence on the border with Greece, becoming the latest country in the region to use a barrier to attempt to control the flow of migrants heading through its territory towards western Europe.

A government spokesman said that the fence should “direct the inflow of people” and the border will remain open.

“We will allow passage for the people who come from war-affected regions as we have done thus far,” he added.

Macedonia allows only people fleeing from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq to cross its border and continue their journey to western Europe. Around 1,500 migrants from other countries have been stranded at the border with Greece.

On Thursday migrants from Morocco, Algeria and Pakistan were detained by police after they responded to being denied access by tearing down part of the wire fence.

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday condemned the restrictions. “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.”

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Friday that “putting up fences will not curb the influx of refugees.”

On Sunday, EU leaders will meet Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Brussels to approve and implement an action plan to cope with the refugee crisis.

Hungary was the first EU country to secure its border in response to the refugee crisis. It set up a fence on the frontier with Croatia and Serbia in October. Slovenia then began putting up a wire fence along part of its border with Croatia.

Slovenia’s Prime Minister Miro Cerar said the fence “will have the objective of directing migrants towards the border crossings. We are not closing our borders.”

Austria also announced at the end of October the construction of a fence to ensure an “orderly, controlled entry.”

The Balkan route is the main road for migrants who enter Europe via Turkey and Greece heading for countries like Germany, where they hope to gain asylum.

Authors:


Cynthia Kroet  



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