Macedonia closes border with Greece to migrants as Serbia and Croatia say only people aiming for Austria or Germany may pass through

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Countries on the Balkan route used by refugees travelling from the Middle East and Asia to western Europe have announced they are taking measures to reduce the number of people claiming asylum.

Macedonia has closed its border with Greece to migrants, police in Skopje said on Wednesday, blocking the path of hundreds trying to reach northern Europe.

“The border is closed,” a senior Macedonian police official said, while a police spokesman in northern Greece said it had been closed since Tuesday evening, leaving about 600 migrants stranded at the frontier.

The Skopje police official said the move stemmed from problems with Slovenian trains that had disrupted the flow of migrants, but the Slovenian rail company Slovenske Železnice insisted they were running as normal.

Meanwhile, officials from Serbia and Croatia have said that only migrants who wish to seek asylum in Austria or Germany would be allowed to pass through the countries.

Last week Austria signalled that it would follow neighbouring Germany’s lead and begin turning back any new arrivals seeking to claim asylum in Scandinavia.

The Serbian minister for migrants’ issues, Aleksandar Vulin, said in a statement that migrants “will not be able to continue with their journey unless they express intention to seek asylum on the territory of Austria and Germany”.

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On Wednesday, Austria put a cap on the number of refugees it wants to accept at 37,500 this year, and a total of 127,500 up to 2019. The latter number represents 1.5% of Austria’s population of 8.5 million.

The Austrian chancellor, Werner Faymann, says the figures are a “guideline” while his deputy, Reinhold Mitterlehner, calls it an “upper limit”. The two officials are from the two parties that make up Austria’s coalition government. Faymann heads the Social Democratic party while Mitterlehner belongs to the centrist People’s party.

Not included are the 90,000 applications from last year, of which many are still being processed.

Germany, the country most of the refugees are heading for, also said on Wednesday that it wants the number of migrants coming to the country to fall “significantly” after almost 1.1 million asylum seekers arrived last year.

A spokesman for the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, says the flow of refugees has already slowed this year but a further reduction is needed. Steffen Seibert did not say what number the government was aiming for and declined to comment on the cap announced by Austria.

On Wednesday, Merkel called for a Europe-wide response to the influx of refugees to the continent, adding that the EU would re-assess the situation at a summit in mid-February.

Merkel has come under intense political pressure to reduce the numbers of migrants coming to Germany. She has vowed to “measurably reduce” arrivals this year but has refused to introduce a cap, saying it would be impossible to enforce without closing German borders.