国产热热热精品,亚洲视频久久】日韩,三级婷婷在线久久,99人妻精品视频,精品九热人人肉肉在线,AV东京热一区二区,91po在线视频观看,久久激情宗合,青青草黄色手机视频

World / Europe

Macedonia declares emergency on borders over migrant crisis

(Agencies) Updated: 2015-08-20 22:53

Macedonia declares emergency on borders over migrant crisis

A girl, part of a new group of more than a thousand immigrants, sleeps as they wait at the border line of Macedonia and Greece to enter into Macedonia near Gevgelija railway station August 20, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

GEVGELIJA, Macedonia - Macedonia declared a state of emergency and called out the army on Thursday to confront a surge in migrants and refugees trying to reach western Europe, leaving several thousand stranded in no-man's land.

A Reuters reporter in the town of Gevgelija on Macedonia's southern border with Greece said the flow of migrants and refugees - which has hit 1,500-2,000 per day - to the local railway station appeared to have suddenly stopped.

Interior Ministry spokesman Ivo Kotevski told Reuters that the "official border crossings are not shut". Authorities, however, may have moved to seal off illegal routes used by the migrants and refugees.

Kotevski said a state of emergency had been declared on the northern and southern borders and that soldiers would be brought in to help address a growing crisis.

Reuters reporters had earlier seen more than 1,000 Middle Eastern, African and Asian migrants and refugees - many of them Syrian - gathered in a dusty no-man's land between Greece and Macedonia, held back by Macedonian police overwhelmed by a dangerous crush at Gevgelija railway station for trains heading north to Serbia.

At the station, families slept in the open, before running and pressing to board the few trains leaving for Serbia, the last stop before Hungary and Europe's borderless Schengen zone. Hungary is racing to complete a fence along its 175-km border with Serbia to keep them out, threatening to create a bottleneck of tens of thousands.

HARSHER WEATHER

Stung by scenes of chaos, of children squeezing through open carriage windows to escape the crush and men wielding sticks, Macedonia has sent riot police to Gevgelija to try to restore some semblance of order.

It appealed on Wednesday for neighbouring countries to send train wagons to address the demand. But the United Nations refugee agency urged the government to do more, saying it should allocate a site to properly accommodate the migrants and refugees.

The problem may worsen with the possible arrival of thousands being evacuated by boat from the Greek island of Kos to the mainland after 21,000 people landed on Greek shores last week alone.

"Depending on how Greece uses ships to decongest the islands that will also temporarily increase the arrivals here," said Alexandra Krause, Senior Protection Officer at the UNHCR in the Macedonian capital, Skopje.

"The (Macedonian) government needs to provide an appropriate site to be able to shelter the arrivals properly and to ensure sufficient assistance," Krause told Reuters.

The only site currently being used is at the local police station, where Krause said the UNHCR had constructed some shelter with capacity for just 165 people. Krause said the Red Cross had access to the migrants and refugees in the border area but warned of harsher weather approaching.

 

Trudeau visits Sina Weibo
May gets little gasp as EU extends deadline for sufficient progress in Brexit talks
Ethiopian FM urges strengthened Ethiopia-China ties
Yemen's ex-president Saleh, relatives killed by Houthis
Most Popular
Hot Topics

...
陵川县| 略阳县| 梅州市| 德安县| 榆树市| 延长县| 庐江县| 深州市| 增城市| 平遥县| 自治县| 抚远县| 遵义市| 阳泉市| 镇平县| 仁布县| 黄浦区| 兰考县| 屯门区| 调兵山市| 砚山县| 冀州市| 金寨县| 团风县| 夏河县| 承德县| 修水县| 义马市| 博罗县| 富宁县| 察隅县| 五家渠市| 方正县| 浮梁县| 宝丰县| 那坡县| 韩城市| 楚雄市| 米脂县| 腾冲县| 都匀市|