“Currently there are 110 Macedonian citizens who are in Syria, 69 have returned, and so far 25 have died. Instead of the police using their resources for monitoring and prevention of possible undesirable attacks from such people, our resources are on the border dealing with the migrant and refugee crisis, ” said President Gjorge Ivanov in an interview last night on television “Kanal 5”.
Commenting on the situation on the southern border after the incidents over the weekend, when a group of migrants clashed and threw stones at police at quota 59, Ivanov said that it is now a high risk situation because it had escalated into violent acts against the police and the army.
At a meeting with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the President said that he informed her with information from the responsible institutions in Macedonia had told her, that the number of migrants coming from Africa and Asia were increasing, adding that there are days when the border has more than 1,000 migrants from Morocco, Bangladesh and Iran.
“It was news to her, because they have information that enters the corridor and what arrives at its final destination, and one of those final destinations is Germany. Chancellor Merkel reassured us that Macedonia must have support, not only from the countries who are in the line of the corridor, but from all the states. We primarily asked for equipment to be able to register all refugees entering and exiting our territory so we can have better border control. Unfortunately, this aid has not yet been received. What’s really worrying is the information that was given to us by the French Prosecution, that two of the participants in the terrorist attacks in Paris passed through our territory”, President Ivanov said.
