Migrants told rundown petrol station is their gateway to Western Europe

Hotel Hara, in Evzoni, on the Greek side of the border (Image: Google Maps)

Migrants heading to Western Europe are told to head to a rundown petrol station. North Macedonia has become a transit country for refugees trying to make their way to Western Europe from Greece.

Almost all of them do so with the help of people smugglers, according to Macedonian Minister of the Interior, Panche Toshkovski. The minister revealed details of the smuggling operation to the website InfoMigrants. He said: "When they arrive in Greece, they receive instructions and are sent to a gathering point near the border, on the Greek side, near Evzoni, called Hotel Hara."

There, at the simple roadside hotel, bordered by a rundown gas station and covered picnic tables, "migrant smugglers wait for them and bring them on foot to cross illegally into Macedonia."

The European Union has ben providing assistance to Macedonia in its fight against people smugglers. Although not a member state, Macedonia has allowed the EU border police Frontex to operate in the country since April 2023.

This October experts from OLTIM (the French office for anti-migrant smuggling operations) also came to train police officers on how to fight smugglers. The training was given in the context of "reinforced cooperation between France and the UK," a press release said.

An Afghan family told InfoMigrants about their failed attempt to cross through Macedonia en route for Western Europe.

Lal Mohammad arrived with his wife and three-year-old daughter in Greece, after four days and nights at sea.

They spent several days at a camp in Thessaloniki, before being transferred to one close to the Macedonian border.

"There, we were told that [in order to have an appointment to apply for asylum], we’d have to wait a year and a half," the 25-year-old recounted.

"We didn’t want to wait that long. So we went to the forest [at the border between Greece and North Macedonia] to try the game."

However, the family was stopped by Macedonian police and put in the Vinojug transit centre.