Despair as stranded refugees seek escape from Greece

Desperation and disillusionment now pervades the air as refugees in fully packed camps in Greece seek ways to move further into Europe.

There are also signs that eastern EU states are preparing for total isolation of such camps with the gradual, but deepening, restrictions on the movement of refugees and migrants through the Western Balkans now bottling them up in Greece.

Read also: Greece on a knife edge

Phoebe Ramsay, a Canadian volunteer who was on her way to find Sham, Doha and Wisam, three Syrian sisters whom she had helped on the island of Leros days before received messages of despair from one of the sisters.

“We are in the street. Sitting on earth. There is no place to sleep. I wish you come. When will you come here?” The desperate Facebook message she received read.

Recall earlier this year, authorities in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia said they would only allow Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans through their border but last week, they took Afghans off the list.

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