
Desperate parents are resorting to holding their babies up to the razor wire in a gut wrenching plea to Macedonian border guards to let them through and continue their journey into Europe.

Frustrated, freezing and exhausted, the thousands of families from Iraq and Syria have left their war-torn country to risk the choppy waters of the Aegean sea and are now forced to appeal to the hearts of the guards at the Idomeni camp on the Greek-Macedonian border.

The defenseless infants - some just a few weeks old and wrapped in woolly hats and blankets are presented as proof of their parent's anguish.

Up to 10,000 people - including 2,500 children - are now waiting at the gates of the 19-mile long fence, while hundreds more arrive every day to find overstretched aid agencies struggling to cope with the worst humanitarian crisis in decades.

‘We’re shocked at how many children we see,' Save The Children's Imad Aoun told MailOnline. 'When they hold their kids up to the border guards they’re saying it’s not about us adults – we’re here for our children. They want to get their kids out.'

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Desperate: A man shows the border guards and the press his infant in the hopes they will take pity on them and let them through

Frustrated: The border gate has been closed to Afghans, while Iraqi and Syrian refugees have been allowed through if they have papers

Babies: Aid agencies estimate there are 2,500 children in the Idomeni camp on the Greek-Macedonian border alone with thousands more on the road

Denied: Only Syrians and Iraqis with documentation are eligible to pass, while Afghan children and their families are told to go back

‘These kids have seen horrific things and the only hope their parents have is for their children – that is why they’re making this journey and that is why we’re seeing so many children travelling now – they don’t believe things will get better back home.’

With temperatures dropping to minus five degrees celsius during the night, worried parents burnt rubbish and huddled in blankets – desperate to keep their young ones warm.

But many have been on the trail for weeks. One couple used a box as a crib, pulling their baby down the road.

Others packed their infant into the luggage compartment of a bus - a warmer place to rest than the muddy ground.

It's these frustrated parents who have been pictured desperately brandishing their children to the border guards.

Supplies: NGOs are working to keep up with demand are are supplying nappies, clothes, food and a place for mother's to breastfeed

But while their babies won't remember this journey it is one their parents will never forget.

One migrant was pictured as he cradled his crying infant dressed in a snug white baby-grow before holding the child above his head, presenting him to the guards.

Another father was seen holding his child as close to a bonfire as he dared, in a bid to keep him warm, while mothers slept under the open sky with just blankets and their body heat to protect their young ones from the early spring chill.

Bored of waiting, boys played football near to puddles of sewage that has overflowed from the toilet blocks unable to cope with capacity.

Other heartbreaking images of the ragged camp at the border fence show two toddlers picking thin bunches of white flowering weeds - just inches from the enormous barbed wire fence built to keep them firmly out of Macedonia.

Queues of people line the fields as they wait for food, water and supplies.

While aid agencies are doing their best to distribute clothes and nappies for children, they say the situation is among the worst they've seen.

'It's just visually stressful - there are loads of children running around, people are always arriving and need assistance. It's very vibrant, but it's hard for people to sleep at night with eight people sharing a tent,' Imad said, in the hours after he returned to Athens from the camp.

'I left at 1am and people were still up searching for materials to burn on the fire to keep warm.'

Overflow: But hundreds of people are arriving everyday while less than 200 were let through into Macedonia this morning

Crowds: The Idomeni camp was originally extended to shelter 1,200 people but now upwards of 8,000 people have been caught at the bottleneck

Sewage: Facilities are buckling under pressure as toilets overflow leaving puddles of sewage next to where children play football. A handful of migrants were allowed through today, above a baby is cradled in a blanket as the family continues the journey on a train headed for Serbia

'We have children and families that haven't slept or eaten properly for days and by the time they get there they've spent a long time on the road.

'When they get to the border they just want somewhere to sleep and something to eat, and then they tell you they haven't showered for weeks because they haven't had any facilities,' said Imad.

But while agencies are yet to report cases of dysentry or dehydration, cold is the biggest danger as temperatures plummet to minus five degrees celsius at night.

Zineb Hosseini, a Syrian mother of five, told AFP her family was 'freezing'.

British NGO Save The Children estimates 2,000 children are gathered in Idomeni alone, with thousands more on the road.

Freezing: Temperatures have been dropping to negative five degrees Celsius at night, leaving the youngest refugees in danger of hypothermia

Mothers: Save The Children has set up child friendly spaces for children and their mothers to have somewhere safe to play together

Rubbish: Migrants are burning rubbish, clothes and wood to try and keep warm as they wait to be allowed through the border

Delays: Authorities are trying to stagger the arrivals of the migrants to the camp and are stopping the buses that bring the hundreds of people from Athens to Idomeni each day

Hungry: Refugees say there is not enough food and the unexpected delay is causing them to run out of the money that they saved for the trip

'We have been waiting for six days,' said Farah, a 32-year-old Iraqi woman from Baghdad also told AFP.

'The food is not enough, everyone is lying to us and we are desperate,' added Farah, who awoke under wet canvas in the sodden wheat fields that comprise the camp.

Fayez, a 27-year-old computer technician from Syria, agreed. 'We have to queue for over three hours, for not enough food,' he said.

'We've been here four days. We want to go to Sweden but our money is running out.'

Two days ago border guards tear gassed the waiting migrants, who had been sitting on the railway tracks at the border and refused to move.

'There is a lot of tension here,' Marie-Elisabeth Ingres, head of MSF's refugee response mission told MailOnline by telephone from the camp as shouts of children could be heard in the background.

'The Greek authorities are constructing separate camps, but the majority of migrants want to be next to the border in the hope that they will be among the first through once it opens.

'We had one girl who was unconscious for 45 minutes after she got caught up in the teargas two days ago. She was only four years old.'

'The journey is very difficult and violent for the children – it's very risky. More and more people are dying in the sea and lots of them are children.

Exhausted: The children and their families have been on the road for weeks by the time they get to Idomeni and are exhausted

Exhausted: The children have been travelling for weeks from mostly Iraq and Syria. Aid agencies say all they want is somewhere to sleep by the time they arrive at Idomeni

Cold: With temperatures dropping to minus five degrees celsius during the night, worried parents burnt rubbish and huddled in blankets – desperate to keep their young ones warm

Gassed: Border police tear gassed refugees yesterday as they waited to pass through the gate after a group tried to force their way through the fence, which has been closed since February 24th

Unconscious: Medicines Sans Frontiers reported a four-year-old girl was left unconscious for 45 minutes after she was caught up in the tear gas

The thousands of Syrian and Iraqi migrant families have camped out for days in the freezing muddy fields near the Greek border town of Idomeni, desperate to continue their long trek north into Europe.

Exhausted from the long, and uncertain journey, one boy was pictured sprawled on a bed of bags waiting for the next bus.

A group of mostly young men gathered in front of the border to protest the closure of the gate and chanted 'Open the border'.

In Athens too, a crowd of Afghani children held up signs chanting 'Open the borders'.

The man leading the demonstration told MailOnline: 'We are not coming over here because of economical problems, we come here because of war. War is continuing in Afghanistan. We don't want food and water – the border is closed to Afghans. Please help us.'

Deported: Greece sent around 70 Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian migrants who illegally entered the country back to Turkey on March 1

Migrants with documents are frustrated as they do not understand why the border is closed to them. In a bid to show they have children, they have been pictured holding them above their heads

Boredom: With nothing to do but wait, the refugees entertain their children in between queuing for food and blankets