4.3.2016

Idomeni is currently holding at least 7 times more people than its maximum capacity. The rain has made the camp muddy and people are wading between makeshift tents and overflowing bins of trash. The police is stopping taxis from driving people over the bridge from the highway all the way to the camp, forcing all people – old, injured, pregnant and with small kids – to walk another 4 kilometers over the fields, carrying their luggage. Nonetheless, people keep arriving.

The restrictions of travel have increased again: people who stayed more than 30 days in Greece are kept from passing the border. As most people have already been in Idomeni for 10 days, and the numbers passing to Gevgelija are negligible, most people will soon no longer fulfill the requirements to travel on the corridor.

Whilst the crisis in Greece is worsening by the day, the UNHCR continues to encourage the EU relocation program which today ‘triumphantly’ announced the ridiculous number of 15 people relocated from Greece to Romania. The situation is unacceptable and such meagre measures will not solve it.