About 1,000 migrants are stuck at the main border crossing into Macedonia from Greece, denied entry due to their nationalities in contravention of international law, the United Nations said. But there were signs on Tuesday that an unrelenting tide of refugees into Europe was starting to ebb, although humanitarian officials said it was too early to declare a trend.
The number of refugees and migrants reaching the Greek islands, the most frequently used entry point to Europe, fell to 155 on Sunday while 478 arrived at the ports of Athens and Kavala - far fewer than the daily average for the past few months, the International Organization for Migration said. There had also been no migrant boats landing in Italy, the other main route into the EU, since November 19, it said. The UN said it remained unclear whether the drop-off in arrivals would continue but an IOM official called it "significant".
It was not immediately known what factors lay behind the sudden decline in incoming migrants. But increasingly stormy winter weather is making crossings by sea from Turkey more perilous, and refugees trekking northwards through the Balkans are now exposed to freezing cold. Traditional refugee haven Sweden announced it will tighten border controls and asylum rules to stem the flood of asylum seekers into the Nordic country, and force other EU nations to accept a bigger share of refugees. And a popular backlash against refugees is intensifying in the country that has taken in the majority of asylum seekers - Germany, while borders are getting harder to cross along the main Balkan corridor towards western Europe.
Macedonia's refusal to admit 1,000 migrants was part of a new policy by Balkan states to filter the flow by granting passage onwards towards western Europe only to those fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, who are seen as genuine asylum seekers rather than "economic migrants". UN officials said the new, uncoordinated obstacles that have stranded migrants on several frontiers in the Balkans threatened a "new humanitarian situation" that required urgent attention given the onset of freezing winter weather.
"The new restrictions chiefly involve people being profiled on the basis of their claimed nationalities," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told a news briefing in Geneva. Nationals of countries other than Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan are being stopped, leading to protests by about 200 people, mainly Iranians, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis, with some 60 now on hunger strike, Edwards said.
"All people have the right to seek asylum, irrespective of their nationality and to have their individual cases heard. Proper information needs to be provided to people affected by decisions at border points, and proper counselling needs to be available," he said. About 30 people are marooned at Macedonia's northern border with Serbia, mostly Nigerians and Moroccans, UNHCR spokesman William Spindler told Reuters.
UNHCR had no information on whether the border curbs were linked to security fears over reports that one of the Islamic State militants who attacked Paris on November 13, killing 130 people, may have entered Europe posing as a migrant. "Nonetheless, the environment is significantly worsened for people seeking asylum and that's a very major concern," Edwards said. On Monday, 409 people arrived on Greek islands near Turkey that are already sheltering 2,245 people, Spindler said.
"But it's too early to say whether it (arrivals) will continue to go down or pick up again. Apparently there were a number of boats arriving on the islands last night." But an IOM statement said: "The drop is significant given that, according to IOM estimates, some 100,000 migrants have crossed into Greece since the beginning of November - averaging around 4,500 crossings per day." There have been no migrant deaths reported in Greek-Turkish waters since November 17, "so we're hoping this is showing a trend where things are starting to fall off with the winter," IOM spokesman Joel Millman said.
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