Macedonia closed its border with Greece to migrants Wednesday, leaving as many as 14,000 desperate people stranded directly on the other side of the frontier and sealing shut the main migration route to Western Europe.
The closure followed similar moves by other countries along the so-called western Balkan route, the overland path taken by hundreds of thousands of migrants who have entered Europe from Turkey through Greece, on their trek to desirable northern European “destination countries” such as Germany and Sweden.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized the move in an interview with a German public radio station Thursday, describing it as a unilateral action that put undue pressure on Greece, where 42,000 migrants are now stuck without an onward route through Europe.
In what officials said was a collective decision, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia all closed their borders from midnight Tuesday to migrants without visas or proper authorization to continue along the route.
“Serbia cannot afford to become a collection center for refugees,” Serbia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs told CNN in an email.
The move brings about an end to the “wave-through” approach which had arisen since the start of Europe’s migrant crisis, and a return to regular border controls, officials said.
Merkel told German radio station MDR that closing the route did not solve the problem, and would only put Athens “in a very difficult situation.”
She reiterated her calls for a unified European response to the crisis.
Increasing numbers stranded in Greece
The closures had been signaled at the end of an emergency summit between EU heads of government and Turkey on Monday, when leaders declared that the western Balkans route would be sealed to migrants, bringing an end to irregular migration into Europe.
Governments had been tightening border restrictions along the route for weeks prior to the move, with Macedonia refusing entry to all but Syrians and Iraqis, and allowing only a few hundred or so through a day.
But on the other side of the Greek-Macedonia border, migrants have continued to flood in from Turkey, at an average rate of 1,800 people each day last month.
More than 3,300 arrived in Greece by sea on Wednesday alone, the U.N. refugee agency said.
With migrants refused onward travel through Europe, observers have warned that Greece risks becoming a huge refugee camp.
Misery at Idomeni
Humanitarian workers described desperate scenes unfolding Thursday at Idomeni, a Greek village along the border with Macedonia that is the site of an overwhelmed transit camp for migrants.
As many as 14,000 migrants, about 40% of them children, are stuck at the camp, which was only meant to house 2,400 people, the U.N. refugee agency said.
Sheltering in crowded tents in muddy fields, their misery was compounded as a month’s worth of rain fell in a single day Wednesday, the agency said. Many there are suffering respiratory problems, it added.
The camp has insufficient accommodation, hygiene and lighting, and women and girls there are particularly vulnerable to abuse when the sun sets, said the International Rescue Committee.
George Kiritsis, the spokesman for the Greek government’s Coordinating Body for Refugee Crisis Management, said officials were looking to close the camp due to the poor conditions there.
“They are living in mud,” he told CNN. “It’s hard to feed and hard to support people medically.”
Authorities were taking a “soft approach” in encouraging migrants to voluntarily shift to the south of the country where there were better facilities, he said, rather than attempting to forcibly remove them.
“Half are women and children. We won’t do that,” he said. “We try with flyers and translators. We understand that it will take some time to sink in that they are not moving.”
Several buses left Idomeni transporting migrants back to Athens Wednesday, workers at the camp said.
‘Bold’ EU-Turkey plan to tackle crisis
At the conclusion of Monday’s emergency EU-Turkey summit, leaders announced a bold new proposal to tackle the crisis
Under the suggested “one-for-one” deal, Ankara would take back all migrants who leave Turkey’s shores for Europe in the future, on the condition that one Syrian refugee is resettled in Europe for every Syrian returned to Turkey.
The plan would also see the EU provide Turkey with billions in additional funding for refugees, speed up talks on Turkey joining the EU and accelerate the lifting of visa requirements for Turkish citizens in Europe.
Officials still need to hammer out the details of the proposal, elements of which were harshly criticized by international humanitarian groups, before it is sent for approval by EU leaders next week.
European leaders also pledged to provide “massive humanitarian assistance” to Greece — which is already struggling with a debt crisis — to help it respond to the unfolding humanitarian crisis within its borders. NATO ships have also been deployed in an effort to smash smuggling networks operating in the Aegean Sea.
Kiritsis, with the Greek government’s refugee crisis response team, said Athens was holding off finalizing its strategy to respond to the crisis until the EU-Turkey plan was confirmed.
Greek officials feared that human traffickers could step up their activities before the EU-Turkey plan was implemented, he said.
More than 1 million arrivals
European leaders are grappling with the biggest refugee crisis since World War II, with more than 1 million people having entered EU territory since the start of 2015.
The majority have come by using trafficking networks to cross the Aegean Sea, which separates Turkey and Greece, with more than 400 migrants dying in that crossing so far this year.
Most of the migrants are from Syria, where the civil war has created more than 4 million refugees.