Migrants at Serbian border launch hunger strike
Migrants protestWednesday at a camp in Horgos, Serbia, near Hungary, which has tightened immigration rules.
HORGOS, Serbia — Migrants protesting Europe’s closed borders say they have launched a hunger strike to press European leaders.
Some 100 men and boys, mostly from Afghanistan and Pakistan, have been protesting Europe’s migrant policies for several days. Last weekend they staged a march to Serbia’s border with EU member Hungary, where they stopped in a dusty field near the boundary, without any facilities and accepting only water from humanitarian groups.
Desperate, they Wednesday that no seems to care.
Holding banners reading “Your Silence is Hurting Us” and “WeWere All Born Free,” the migrants were carrying on with their protest calmly in small groups.
Their eyes blurred from the heat, some migrants collapsed getting up, as others rushed to their aid.
“The situation is turning said one from bad to worse,” said Roohul Amin Afridi, 33, of Afghanistan, one of the protest leaders.
As a Serbian ambulance arrived to the scene, Afridi said that several men have collapsed already and have been taken to a local hospital.
Some 300 men initially set off on foot Friday from Belgrade, the Serbian capital, toward theHungarian border, 120 miles away, to draw attention to the plight of the several thousand people who have been stuck in Serbia and other Balkan countries after the so-called Balkan refugee route closed inMarch.
Hungary has tightened immigration rules, letting in onlyupto 30 migrants a day, mostly families with small children, and pushing back those caught trying to cross illegally. Any newcomers will face weeks or months ofwaiting, while single men have little hope of making it across the border.
Aid workers say some 600 migrants are in the camp atHorgos.