Concerns as Balkan states block migrants

Balkan states are continuing to tighten their frontiers to thousands of migrants trying to reach western Europe, despite scuffles and rising tension at border crossings and warnings of growing danger from international aid agencies.

Hundreds of people blocked a rail line running from Greece into Macedonia yesterday as police at the border stopped them from crossing, only allowing those from conflict zones to move on.

Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia are all now trying to stop so-called economic migrants from continuing towards Austria and Germany along with Syrians, Iraqi and Afghans, who have the best chance of receiving refugee status in the EU.

At Idomeni on the Greece-Macedonia frontier, people from countries ranging from Pakistan and Bangladesh to Iran, Lebanon and Morocco jostled with police and held up pieces of cardboard scrawled with appeals for help to Germany and its leader, Angela Merkel.

Ever larger groups now find themselves stuck at Balkan borders, where overnight temperatures sink towards freezing, as security fears stoked by last Friday’s Paris attacks compound Europe’s worst refugee crisis since the second World War.

Balkan states have little capacity to accommodate asylum seekers who are prevented from continuing their journey. All of them fear being caught with many migrants on their territory if Austria or Germany suddenly reduces the number they are willing to take – currently some 4,000-7,000 each day.

"There is urgent need to put in place additional reception capacity at the points of entry," said Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency.

“When you have numbers of people backing up at any one of these points, you have a problem with insufficient accommodation and that as we head into winter is a serious, serious worry,” he warned.

Greece is coming under pressure to limit the flow of migrants into the EU, with Macedonia to the north now making preparations to build a fence along at least part of their shared border.

The vast majority of more than 800,000 migrants who have reached the EU this year arrived by boat on Greek islands from Turkey. Greek police have now stepped up document checks and arrested about 10 people on Lesbos, including Afghan, Pakistani and Iraqi citizens, on suspicion of selling fake identity documents.

Fears over who may be among the migrants soared after what appeared to be a Syrian passport was found by the body of a man who blew himself up during the Paris attacks; it is not clear if the passport is genuine, but it was carried by someone who arrived in the EU through Greece and Balkan states in October.

With colder, wetter weather forecast for the Balkans in the coming days, the UNHCR and other aid agencies have warned in a joint statement that the situation is “becoming increasingly untenable from every point of view – humanitarian, legal and also safety related”.