| Author (Corporate) | Deutsche Welle |
|---|---|
| Series Title | Article |
| Series Details | 15.08.15 |
| Publication Date | 15/08/2015 |
| Content Type | News |
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Deutsche Welle and other news sources reported in August 2015 of chaotic scenes at the train station of Gevgelija in Macedonia (FYROM) on the border with Greece, as migrants and refugees tried to reach a Member State of the European Union. Many were attempting to reach Hungary before the country finished building a fence to keep them out. On the 20 August 2015 it was reported that the Macedonian government had declared a state of emergency in two border regions to cope with the growing numbers of migrants. On the 21 August 2015 there were reports that Macedonian special police forces had fired stun grenades to disperse the roughly 3,000 migrants who were making an attempt to get past police officers at the Greek-Macedonia border. Many of the migrants were said to come from Syria. The UN urged both Greece and Macedonia to tackle a 'deteriorating situation'. The UN refugee agency expressed concern over the increasingly precarious situation at the border between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYRoM). It called for Europe to act together in response to the growing crisis and help overstretched countries like Greece, FYRoM and Serbia. Amnesty International said that 'The Macedonian authorities are responding as if they were dealing with rioters rather than refugees who have fled conflict and persecution'. On the 22 August 2015 police in Macedonia reopened the country's southern frontier with Greece, enabling the thousands of people who had been stuck there to travel north through the country towards Serbia and onward to Hungary and thereby the EU and Schengen passport-free travel zone. |
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| Source Link | http://dw.com/p/1GGAN |
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| Countries / Regions | Hungary, North Macedonia, Serbia |
