UN REFUGEE AGENCY: Children 'won't forget how Europe rejected them'
The migration deal the European Union struck with Turkey on Friday is effectively leaving them in limbo.
The deal stipulates all refugees, including Syrians, coming to Greece would be taken back by Turkey, in exchange for the EU taking in refugees directly from Turkey. Leaving those in Greece waiting at the Macedonia border near the village of Idomeni in the hope Europe will re-open the border.
Babar Baloch, the UNHCR's spokesperson for Central Europe, told Libération that they had now stopped registering people for their relocation throughout Europe as only 2,080 places were available.
"It's unbelievable, Asia and Africa managed much bigger refugee crises, and Europe cannot do it and is tearing itself apart," Baloch said. "I wonder what history will remember of this: that Europe collapsed at Idomeni? Will we see the failure of humanity?"
The Balkan route closure and the new measures imposed by the deal have not have any impacts on the number of arrivals in Greece, where 46,000 are currently stuck.
The 10,000 people stuck at Idomeni are living in a makeshift camp which has been flooded numerous times over the last few days. The children, and the fact that European leaders are letting thousands of them who are fleeing war live in such appalling conditions, are Baloch's biggest concern.