Migrants sew up lips in protest at Macedonian border

Migrants sew up lips in protest at Macedonian border

Macedonia's TV Telma broadcaster said these migrants' message was they would "not give up on their intention to reach one of the EU countries."

Slovenia, Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia all last week decided to allow only war refugees to their territory, and prevent economic migrants from entering.

The same source said that "several refugee families, mostly with women and children, returned to Athens - but new ones are arriving."

The local media in Macedonia said that a total of 5,797 migrants entered the country on Sunday - a record for the past several months.

From June 19 until Sunday at midnight the country issued 279,306 "certificates" to migrants and refugees - including 57,822 for children traveling with their parents, and 14,758 more who were unaccompanied.

During the same period of time, Macedonia's authorities in charge of asylum issues received a total of 75 requests to grant asylum.