Migrants endure modern odyssey
Asylum- seekers take many routes to cross illegally into Europe. Shawn Pogatchnik and Dalton Bennett follow their footsteps.
SAFE HOUSE
The 32 men and 11 women packed into a two- bedroom basement apartment have left West Africa in search of a better life in Europe. It’s taken them months, some even years, to reach this moment of hope. Two of the women have brought along 10- month- old children born during the journey; the boy in Greece, the girl in Turkey. Most have come via Turkey and, after paying smugglers around 1,000 euros ($ 1,100 US) each, sailed to nearby Greek islands to claim asylum on EU soil. But none wants to stay in Greece, with its unending debt crisis and high unemployment.
To escape means heading north to Hungary via the former Yugoslavia, and a key link in the journey — Macedonia — must be covered on foot because of stiff criminal penalties for traffickers.
The smuggler, a former soldier who provided AP access to the group on condition of anonymity, promises to deliver clients to the Serbian border in 10 days for a price averaging $ 500 US a head.
TO THE BORDER
It takes half a day for the entire group to board buses at a Thessaloniki central station full of rival groups of Asian and Arab migrants — and a large contingent of immigration police checking IDs. Two of the 45 Africans fall at this first hurdle, facing arrest for failing to carry papers identifying them as asylum- seekers.
The rest start their long walk an hour north in the Greek border town of Polikastro. They follow an active rail line over a rickety wooden bridge through woods for 10 hours, reaching the frontier with Macedonia shortly before midnight. The weather is cool but fine, and they sleep in the open air.
The next night — most hiking will be done after dark to reduce the risk of detection, arrest and deportation back to Greece — they cross the border under the noses of a hilltop police observation post. They pitch 10 tents in Macedonia amid high spirits.
PATHTO PERDITION
The group traverses a mountain ridge, a road junction, cabbage fields and streams during a 40- kilometre trek that concludes at 4 a. m. under a freeway overpass. A 34- year- old Malian woman with leg pain forces the group to stop midway. Men carry her for a half- hour, then say she must walk or be left behind.
The next morning the weather turns increasingly harsh as heavy rains turn into snow. The two 10- month- old infants cannot be consoled in the nighttime cold and, as the group falls two days behind schedule, mounting hunger gnaws at morale.
The group is reduced to 42 as a 41- year- old Ivorian who uses a cane cannot keep walking and is left near a village to be sent back to Greece. On the sixth night of walking, the group finally reaches the town of Nogotino, still less than halfway to the Serb border.
Two days later, the snow has worsened and some tents have broken.
CASUALTIES AND CHAOS
On the ninth day, the Cameroonian mother of a 10- monthold boy says she cannot go on and they are left at night at an Orthodox church. The remaining 40 continue to follow the Vardar River north to the first large town on the route, Veles. After 145 kilometres on foot, their luck runs out. Two policemen appear and, once they see the large numbers of migrants, use their clubs on stragglers. Five are arrested. The next day, the smuggler and all but 13 of his group are in Macedonian custody and are shipped back to Greece in trucks.
TRYING AGAIN
Ten days after the Veles debacle, the smuggler sets out again with 33 clients. Without children to carry, the second mission makes better time — until police arrest all of them south of Veles. The smuggler this week has begun a third attempt involving at least 20 veterans of the first two failures.
As the hike resumes, a handful of the migrants who evaded police at Veles have sent messages of triumph to their friends: They paid traffickers 100 euros ($ 110 US) a head to be smuggled through Serbia and are in Hungary, gateway for borderless EU travel. Given enough chances, the smuggler says, all of them should make it.