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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