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Macedonia forcibly returns thousands of refugees to Greece
Source: The Guardian
Macedonia forcibly returns thousands of refugees to Greece
Helena Smith in Idomeni
Tuesday 15 March 2016 19.35 GMT
Thousands of desperate refugees who had made a dramatic push into Macedonia – bypassing its sealed border by wading through the freezing waters of a river – were forcibly returned to Greece on Tuesday amid heightened tensions between the two countries.
As Athens and Skopje engaged in a war of words over the episode, hundreds of exhausted men, women and children began streaming back into the muddy, waterlogged camp they had sought to flee barely 24 hours earlier.
“They hit everyone – women, children, men – and said ‘you are going back’,” said Halad al-Hassan, 32, from Raqqa, the Syrian city overrun by Islamic State militants last summer. “People are very shocked, too shocked to even want to speak,” he sighed, shaking his head in disbelief. “I’ve been here in Idomeni for 27 days. It’s very bad, very cold, very unbelievable. Why does Macedonia do this? Why has Europe closed the borders?”
Dazed youngsters, blankets strewn across their shoulders against the biting cold, walked around aimlessly as charity workers – many having worked through the night – strove to cater for the estimated 2,500 people pushed back into Greece.
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Helena Smith in Idomeni
Tuesday 15 March 2016 19.35 GMT
Thousands of desperate refugees who had made a dramatic push into Macedonia – bypassing its sealed border by wading through the freezing waters of a river – were forcibly returned to Greece on Tuesday amid heightened tensions between the two countries.
As Athens and Skopje engaged in a war of words over the episode, hundreds of exhausted men, women and children began streaming back into the muddy, waterlogged camp they had sought to flee barely 24 hours earlier.
“They hit everyone – women, children, men – and said ‘you are going back’,” said Halad al-Hassan, 32, from Raqqa, the Syrian city overrun by Islamic State militants last summer. “People are very shocked, too shocked to even want to speak,” he sighed, shaking his head in disbelief. “I’ve been here in Idomeni for 27 days. It’s very bad, very cold, very unbelievable. Why does Macedonia do this? Why has Europe closed the borders?”
Dazed youngsters, blankets strewn across their shoulders against the biting cold, walked around aimlessly as charity workers – many having worked through the night – strove to cater for the estimated 2,500 people pushed back into Greece.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/15/macedonia-forcibly-returns-refugees-greece-idomeni
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