11.03.2016, By JOVANA GEC, Associated Press
TABANOVCE, Macedonia (AP) — Yousif Shikhmous had such high hopes of
starting a new life in Germany that when his son was born, the Syrian
refugee named him Merkkel. Only four months later, Shikhmous has seen
all those dreams shattered after he and his family boarded what has
become known as "The Last Train to Europe."
The group of about 400
refugees from Syria and Iraq were among the last to enter Macedonia
from Greece, where they got stuck this week when the Balkan countries
started closing their borders, abruptly shutting the main migrant
pathway to Europe.
The group of mostly women and small children
had caught a northbound train that took them to the border with Serbia.
But instead of moving on, they found themselves in a no-man's-land
between the Macedonian and Serbian frontiers — mired in a muddy limbo
created by the latest chaos marking Europe's worst migration crisis
since World War II.
Thousands
of people now are similarly stuck along the route through the Balkans
that saw more than 1 million people surge out of Turkey, through Greece
and toward the wealthier nations of Europe in 2015.
Refused
permission to move onward, they are caught by the suddenly changing
entry rules and living in dire conditions in small, donated tents. And
more people fleeing war and poverty keep streaming out of the Middle
East and elsewhere.
About 14,000 people are stranded on the Greek
side of the border with Macedonia, and authorities hope to start
relocating most of them from an overcrowded refugee camp there in the
coming weeks. Tensions are running so high at the camp near the Greek
village of Idomeni that fights over food broke out Friday as aid
organizations distributed the supplies, leaving some people bloodied and
limping.
It took two months for the Shikhmous family —
32-year-old Yousif, his 20-year-old wife, Dilan Haji, and young Merkkel —
to escape the Syrian civil war. Their journey began in the town of
Hasaka in northeastern Syria, where their son was born and named for
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, even though they spell his name
differently.
They went via Turkey and over the Aegean Sea to
Greece, crossed the Greece-Macedonia border on foot, and boarded a
special train to take the refugees to Serbia, paying 25 euros (about
$28) per person.
They reached the Serbian border Monday, where
they got off the train to cross the frontier on foot and be taken to a
refugee center for processing to continue the journey north.
But
nations along the Balkans route have been tightening border restrictions
this month on migrants and refugees. This week, Slovenia, Croatia,
Serbia and Macedonia suddenly refused them transit.
The Shikhmous
family and the other refugees never made it across the Serbian border,
having been told it had been shut to them for good. Still technically in
Macedonia, they can see the Serbian border police patrol about 50 yards
(meters) away.
They also learned that Macedonian authorities would no longer take them, having already stamped their papers.
They found themselves trapped, with no shelter or help. For four nights, they have been staying in a sodden field.
"We want them to open the border and to go to Germany," Shikhmous said. "I am waiting here for the border to open."
They
stayed in the field, with border police keeping guard behind
barricades. As heavy rain started falling, the vast grass field turned
into pools of water and ankle-deep mud, strewn with garbage and small
fires for warmth. Stray dogs roamed nearby, looking for food scraps amid
the waste.
Shikhmous said in broken English that when they
arrived, there was "no food, no dress for woman, no dress for men, no
milk for baby."
After a day or two, aid groups brought warm
clothes, food, rubber boots and jackets, he said. They set up portable
toilets and distributed tents. Doctors arrived to check on the children,
many of whom have fallen sick with fever and respiratory and stomach
ailments.
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