EUROPE-MIGRANT/MACEDONIA STATION Migrants board trains in Macedonia en route to Europe
Record ID:
142811
EUROPE-MIGRANT/MACEDONIA STATION Migrants board trains in Macedonia en route to Europe
- Title: EUROPE-MIGRANT/MACEDONIA STATION Migrants board trains in Macedonia en route to Europe
- Date: 23rd August 2015
- Summary: GEVGELIJA, MACEDONIA (AUGUST 23, 2015) (REUTERS) MIGRANTS WAITING AT TRAIN STATION / POLICE STANDING MIGRANTS SAT ON PLATFORM WAITING FOR TRAIN MIGRANTS STANDING IN GROUP WAITING VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS INCLUDING CHILDREN WAITING ON PLATFORM TRAIN PULLS IN TO STATION / MIGRANTS WAITING MIGRANTS BEGIN TO BOARD TRAINS / SECOND TRAIN PULLS IN TO STATION VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS WALKING TO BOARD TRAIN VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS WAITING ON PLATFORM TO BOARD TRAIN
- Embargoed: 7th September 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVACW3RWNMEE0L08DY0FSC2K1ZHG
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Migrants boarded trains at Gevgelija train station in Macedonia on Sunday (August 23) on their way north to Serbia.
Following days of chaos and confrontation, overwhelmed security forces appeared to abandon a bid to stem the flow of migrants from Greece through the Balkans to western Europe.
Riot police remained, but did little to slow the passage of a steady stream of migrants, many of them refugees from the Syrian war and other conflicts in the Middle East.
Macedonia had declared a state of emergency on Thursday (August 20) and sealed its southern frontier to migrants pouring in at a rate of 2,000 per day en route to Serbia then Hungary and the European Union's borderless Schengen zone.
That led to desperate scenes at the border, as men, women and children slept in the open with little access to food or water.
Macedonia attempted to ration access, riot police used tear gas and stun grenades to drive back crowds, but were overwhelmed on Saturday (August 22) by several thousand who tore through police lines or ran through nearby empty fields.
The state eventually laid on extra trains, and buses to take the migrants swiftly north to Serbia and the next step of a long journey from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
The backlog created in Macedonia, which faces criticism from aid agencies for not expanding capacity to receive and process the migrants, reached Serbia overnight, straining the country's own ad hoc reception centres.
Macedonia has accused neighbouring Greece, with which it enjoys a tense relationship, of aiding the migrants' journey north at a pace the Balkan country says it cannot cope with.
Greece has begun chartering boats to take migrants from inundated Greek islands to the mainland, after a record 50,000 hit Greek shores by boat from Turkey in July alone. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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