Roundup: Balkan route closure increasing migrant transits through Macedonia

Dozens of migrants are trying to enter Macedonia illegally from Greece every day since the closure of Balkan migrant route to Western Europe.

Macedonian security forces on Monday said in the north border of the country, several tens of migrants tried to cross from Macedonia to Serbia and continue their journey up north.

"Once the legal registration process is no longer available, it is logical to expect black migrant routes to return. The countries in the region will have to increase the efforts to control illegal transits," security expert Blagoja Markovski said.

In the past day, not a single permit for transition of a migrant was issued in Macedonia, the Macedonian Ministry of Interior reported. As a comparison, since the beginning of the year almost 90,000 permits were issued, and half of them (44,734) were for citizens of Syria.

Several thousand migrants still remain stuck along the so-called Balkan route. Almost 1,500 of them are on Macedonian territory in refugee camp Tabanovce on the border with Serbia.

"Almost 400 migrants left the camp and crossed over the border to no-man's land in an attempt to pressure authorities into opening the border. They say they will stay there until March 17 when the EU has to adopt a final decision for the future of the Balkan migrant route," a volunteer in a humanitarian NGO working in the camp told Xinhua.

The cold and rainy weather is making the refugees' stay out in the open unbearable. Most of them, including babies, are suffering colds and influenza.

"Our biggest problem is the closing of the borders. We don't have a Plan B. We are stuck here for days. The only thing that is important to us is to cross the border and reach Germany as a real safe country. Our family wants to escape from the war. We are ready to die here but we won't go back," a Syrian migrant in Tabanovce said.

In the Greek refugee camp Idomeni, almost 15,000 migrants are waiting to be allowed to enter Macedonia from Greece. Last Saturday, the children from the camp blocked the railways, demanding the borders be opened.

Local media reported that around 400 migrants, tired of waiting, left the camp in Idomeni on Monday to try and walk around the security fence and cross the border to Macedonia.

Migrants often risk their lives when crossing borders. They walk on foot on unprotected railway lines, risk being mugged and try to swim rivers swollen from heavy rains.

Three migrants, two men and a woman, drowned in the waters of Suva Reka river near the Macedonian town Gevgelija on Monday.

According to information from the Macedonian Ministry of Interior, they were part of a bigger migrant group that was trying to transit through the country.

The surviving 23 migrants from the group were taken to the transition camp near Gevgelija where they received first health aid. Endit