Migrants Resume Passage Through Macedonia

Macedonia on Sunday assisted thousands of migrants to resume their journeys through the country and into Serbia after the authorities tried to seal their southern border last Thursday and declared a crisis situation, which resulted in chaotic scenes and clashes with police.

Large groups of migrants - many of them refugees from the war in Syria - were again crossing Macedonia's southern border with Greece on Sunday. 

The authorities said they laid on transport for some 4,000 newly-arrived migrants on Sunday alone. Most of them want to travel through Macedonia and then Serbia and Hungary to reach EU.

"Buses and trains were engaged to carry them further north to the border with Serbia," police spokesperson Ivo Kotevski said. 

Meanwhile, the Serbian authorities set up another temporary camp near the border with Macedonia to accommodate the swelling numbers of migrants. The new camp was established in the village of Miratovac, near the southern Serbian town of Presevo. 

The UNHCR, the Red Cross and other humanitarian organisations working on the ground have warned that more help is needed.

The gradual normalisation of the migrant transit route through Macedonia followed two days of tensions at the southern border with Greece. On Friday and Saturday Macedonian police fired stun grenades as many migrants broke through police lines to enter the country.

This happened after authorities faced, faced with a build-up of migrants, tried to limit the number of entries at the border.

The rights organisation Amnesty International condemned what it called the use of 'paramilitary measures' to hold back refugees.

Macedonian officials have said that some 45,000 refugees from Middle Eastern and...