EUROPE-MIGRANTS/MACEDONIA-SERBIA BORDER Thousands of migrants arrive in Serbia as flow of people travelling towards western Europe continues

Record ID: 134970

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/MACEDONIA-SERBIA BORDER Thousands of migrants arrive in Serbia as flow of people travelling towards western Europe continues
  • Date: 13th October 2015
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) SYRIAN REFUGEE, MAHMOUD SIDO, SAYING: "We are still crossing but the weather is not nice, and also yesterday, or before two days, there were two boats (capsized), there was one child dead already, and in the other boat seven people dead." VARIOUS OF CHILDREN WAITING AT REGISTRATION CENTRE (SOUNDBITE) (English) IRAQI REFUGEE FROM MOSUL, SALAM HAMED, SA
  • Embargoed: 28th October 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Serbia
  • Country: Serbia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA47KJ5FATEHTMV5BGV358O70Z6
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Some 3,000 migrants crossed into Serbia from Macedonia on foot on Tuesday morning (October 13) as the continent's gravest refugee crisis since World War Two shows no signs of easing.
    At least three trainloads of people arrived at the train station in the Macedonian border village of Tabanovce, brought there directly from the country's southern border with Greece.
    Large numbers of people escaping conflicts in the Middle East continue to travel along the Balkan route, passing through Turkey, Greece, Macedonia and Serbia on their way towards western Europe.
    The most dangerous part of their journey is crossing the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece, usually done in small rubber dinghies.
    "We were stuck for six days in the sea. They left us, like around 49 persons, in a small boat they called big boats. We were about to die. But only the Greeks helped us," Syrian refugee Salal al-Khadri said as he got off the train at Tabanovce.
    At Tabanovce, the migrants - mostly Syrian - take a quick rest before immediately continuing their journey on foot, walking through fields and along country roads to reach Serbian's southern border.
    On average, some 6,000 people are entering Serbia this way every day. Their next stop is in the town of Presevo, where a registration centre has been set up by Serbian authorities.
    But as the pressure of new arrivals exceeds the processing capacity at the centre, many have to wait in queues for hours in order to register and get the papers required for them to continue their journey.
    "You see, we are crossing the country, I came from Macedonia, we came here, the train was like in horror movies, the light went on off, on off all the time, and now we are waiting here in a queue, so, what can you do? We are waiting," Mahmoud Sido from Syria said as he stood in a queue outside the centre in Presevo.
    Sido said his goal was to reach Germany to be reunited with his German wife.
    He showed Reuters reporters his personal photos depicting him and his then girlfriend, smiling and spending time with friends in scenes that looked like they had been taken in another lifetime.
    "We are still crossing but the weather is not nice, and also yesterday, or before two days, there were two boats (capsized), there was one child dead already, and in the other boat seven people dead," Sido said, returning to the realities of the arduous journey he had to undertake after his visa applications were turned down.
    More than 170,000 people have crossed into Serbia this summer, mostly escaping the civil war in Syria and the bloodshed in Iraq, where Islamic State (also known as ISIS) militants have captured large swaths of territory and imposed extreme forms of Sharia law.
    "It's more miserable than this, especially in Mosul and areas under ISIS control - people are dead there. No work, no schools, no colleges. Everything (is) under their rule. Nobody can get out of the city, they are under siege," said Salam Hamed, a dentist from the Iraqi city of Mosul which fell to Islamic State forces in June 2014.
    After registering in Presevo, the migrants board buses taking them to the border with Croatia, where they again disembark and cross into eastern Croatia only to board trains to take them to Hungary.
    For the vast majority of them, the goal is reaching Germany, Sweden and other wealthy countries in western Europe, in the hope of rebuilding their lives and reuniting with their families who had already made the journey.
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