MAIN ACTIVITIES
Operational Context
Eidomeni, small town in northern Greece, is the sole crossing point between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia opened for refugees and migrants. At the end of August 2015, when the influx of refugees and migrants started increasing, the situation in Eidomeni was marked by high level tensions, use of violence by Polices on both sides of the border, hazard as people were waiting on the rain tracks and lack of basic services. And thus despite, retrospectively, a relatively limited number of people present. This tense situation led the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to close its border between the 21 and 23 August.
From September, thanks to an increasing numbers of partners, a better collaboration between all stakeholders, the implementation by the authorities of a system to organize the crowd and the crossing, and the installment of facilities to meet the basic needs of people of concern, the overall situation has notably been improved and tensions became exceptional.
In November, an average of 6,200 people a day have crossed the border mainly in calm and dignified conditions, with exceptional tensions, especially related to the new policy implemented by the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia since 18 November, allowing to cross only certain nationalities. Two times since October, the number of crossing exceeded 10,000 persons a day, without tensions to occur.
On 17 November, Serbia started to profile people of concern on the basis of their alleged nationalities, and to allow only nationals of Afghanistan, Iraq and Syrian Arab Republic, to cross the border. The following day, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia started implementing the same measure. In November, these three nationalities represent 85 percent of the 114,000 arrivals to Greece (as of 23 November).
This new policy led to tensions among the people present, up to 500 people started protesting, calling for the opening of the border, and some taken extreme measures as starting a hunger strike for 60, or stitched up their mouths for 11 people. In cooperation with authorities, UNHCR and its partners immediately adjusted their response to this new situation, especially by increasing the reception capacity of the site. Protection activities were scaled up through the deployment of additional staff to prevent family separation, provide relevant information, promote dignified conditions of transit, monitor the border and therefore ease tensions.