Macedonia To Turn Blind Eye to Illegal Migrants

Macedonia is to allow migrants legal passage through the country, after encountring criticism for putting them at risk of being robbed, kidnapped or killed while hiding from the authorities.

The bill adopted by the government on Tuesday is expected to pass in parliament on Thursday.

"The current situation and circumstances demand an emergency session," the speaker of parliament, Trajko Veljanoski, said on Wednesday.

Human rights activist Suad Misini, who has been on a hunger strike for four days in front of parliament over the issue, said he would continue his strike until the law is passed.

"We must urgently end the practice of migrants walking hundreds of kilometres along the railways, protect their physical integrity and property and, most importantly, stop treating migrants like criminals and release them from the centre in Gazi Baba [in Skopje] where not even basic human conditions for their stay are maintained," Misini said.

The law will allow migrants to ask any law enforcement officer for a form that will regulate their transit throught the country and grant them 72 hours' safe passage through Macedonia.

The aim is to deter illegal migrants from using unsafe routes, which often involve following the south-north railway line from Greece via Macedonia to Serbia.

More than 25 migrants have been killed by passing trains while walking along this line and there have been news reports of criminal gangs kidnapping people for ransom.

The law change is being pushed after Britain's Channel 4 News programme in June broadcast a report suggesting that criminal gangs have been profiting from the situation.

The report said hundreds of migrants from countries including Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen,...

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