Spotlight: Refugees at Macedonia transit center hope Balkan route reopens

After the gradual border closures along the Balkan route in February, more than 50,000 people were trapped in Greece and some were stranded in Macedonia.

At Macedonia's southeastern Gevgelija refugee transit center, refugees has continued to wait in the hope that some day the Balkan route will be re-opened.

Hana Habahbeh, a field coordinator for the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, told Xinhua there were about 135 refugees at the transit center, who arrived about two months ago, before the Balkan route was closed.

"Actually, we are not facing any huge problems here, except for questions (raised by the refugees) every day on if the route will open again," said Habahbeh, noting that people at the center had food and everything they needed, due to donations from several organizations and countries.

The temporary transit center, located at Macedonia's border with Greece, was used to accommodate migrants as they waited for transportation by train towards Serbia.

According to workers at the center, there could be thousands of refugees transiting via the center toward Serbia, but now the center is mostly quiet with only 135 refugees there.

There are still around 30 to 40 children at the center accompanied by their parents, who partake in several activities such as watching cartoons, craft classes and physical education classes.

Normally, refugees are asked to stay at the waiting area for their documents to be checked, but now the waiting area is empty.

In 2015, over a million refugees and migrants passed through Gevgelija, which was one of the focal points of the crisis, as the main border crossing with Greece passes right next to Gevgelija.

Monika Ristova, from the Macedonian Young Lawyers Association, who offers legal information to the refugees at the center, told Xinhua there were lots of sad stories about the refugees.

She said there was a Syrian man who didn't have enough money to buy a train ticket worth about 25 euros (28 U.S. dollars) to leave the camp for Serbia.

So when the train taking around 400 people was about to depart, the man appealed to her. He explained that before leaving his country, men from the Islamic State wanted him to join the group. When he refused, they killed his daughter in front of him.

He then traveled through the mountains with groups of other refugees to Macedonia via Turkey and Greece. There were almost always smugglers asking for money to take them through, Ristova relayed.

Ristova said there had also been a man and woman who had lost their three children during the sea crossing from Turkey to Greece.

A migrant from Syria who declined to give his name told Xinhua he was thinking about going back to Syria, because he was "used to life in Syria, and Syria is better."

According to Mayor of Gevgelija Ivan Frangov earlier this month, the Gevgelija refugee transit center on the border with Greece won't change into a temporary center due to its limited capacities.

Meanwhile, more than 10,000 people are waiting across the border on the Greek side for the possible reopening of the Balkan route.

"Gevgelija border town has handled well the brunt of the migrant crisis and that challenges remain, even after the Balkan route was closed down," stated Frangov.

The first border restrictions on the Balkan route were put in place in the second half of 2015 and, since then, the situation has deteriorated. Austria, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia then further increased border restrictions.

Since mid-February, after the border closures along the Balkan route to central Europe, several thousand migrants still remain stuck.

Apart from Gevgelija border area, almost 1,500 refugees are stranded on Macedonian territory in the Tabanovce refugee camp on the border with Serbia.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, UNHCR representative to Macedonia Mohammad Arif upheld that it is very difficult to stop the flow of refugees, or asylum seekers, or migrants, because the problems, the root causes for the problems are still not resolved. So the flow will be outpouring, the flow will go out of these countries.

"We, as UNHCR, try to make sure that asylum seeker and refugees have their basic entitlements and rights. That is what, as UNHCR, we work for and advocate for. But at the same time, we remind from time to time that the root causes, on the political side, should be considered seriously and should be taken to solution," he said.

Hillary Clinton, former U.S. secretary of state turned Democratic front-runner in the upcoming presidential elections in November, has recently stated that voting as then-senator for the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 was her "greatest regret," describing the move as "a mistake."

"It did not turn out the way that I thought it would," she told the ABC News in an interview, "I regret that and I have said that it was a mistake." Endit