Migrant Flow into Serbia from Bulgaria Remains Unchanged - UNHCR

The inflow of migrants crossing from Bulgaria into Serbia remains unchanged at 100-200 people per day, the UN refugee agency said on Friday.

More than 500 people entered Serbia on Thursday with the number of those crossing from Macedonia declining, Tanjug quoted UNHCR spokeswoman Melita Sunjic as saying.

Sunjic told the Serbian news agency that 553 refugees and migrants entered the country on Thursday, with 150 crossing from Bulgaria and 403 from Macedonia.

The number of people crossing in from Macedonia has dropped, which makes it appear that the number of those coming in from Bulgaria has increased, Sunjic said, according to Tanjug. In fact, the inflow from Bulgaria has not changed because typically there are 100-200 people crossing into Serbia, she added.

Sunjic also said that the UNHCR has strenghthened its presence in Bulgaria.

Macedonia has been allowing only people arriving from war zones such as Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq to cross at its Gevgelija checkpoint opposite Idomeni in Greece as those migrants are typically granted asylum in the EU. The Macedonian authorities consider people from other nationalities to be economic migrants and deny passage to them.

The division sparked clashes on Thursday with migrants from Pakistan, Iran and other countries banned from crossing into Macedonia from Greece setting up roadblocks on the Greek side of the border.