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Irregular migration remains Macedonia's main challenge: interior minister

Xinhua, September 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

Irregular migration remains one of Macedonia's challenges as about 800,000 migrants transited the country in the 18 months ending June 2016, Macedonian Interior minister Oliver Spasovski said on Wednesday.

The management of the situation was, without a doubt, one of the biggest challenges that the country has faced with so far, Spasovski said at a conference on migration issue.

Macedonia has to efficiently control its borders and protect the lives and health of those migrants, who do not want to stay at the country, but transit as quickly as possible, said Spasovski.

Despite efforts to normalize the situation, the migrant crisis is far from being over. According to the minister, there were up to 100 attempts for illegal entry into Macedonia on a daily basis.

Spasovski praised the support that many European Union(EU) countries have given to Macedonia to cope with the situation.

The EU has covered the costs of migrants' stay since March, through a project implemented by the International Organization for Migration. The situation at Macedonia's southern border is now significantly different from that in 2015 and the first three months of this year, according to the minister.

Police officers from Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Serbia, Slovakia, etc., have taken part in securing the Macedonian southern border since December of last year, according to the minister. Enditem