“We have been here for two months now and we want the authorities to open the door for us so we can pass. Every one of us is out of money now and our children are sick,” a refugee from Iraqi Kurdistan’s Sulaimani told a Rudaw reporter in Idomeni, which is on the border with Macedonia.
“I have escaped poverty and unemployment. The war with Daesh (ISIS) impacted everything in our homeland,” he added.
Another refugee from Syrian Kurdistan, or Rojava, said he had escaped war and all he wanted is a safe place.
Under an EU deal signed last month, refugees arriving in Greece will be deported to Turkey.
“If we are sent back to Turkey, we will not stay there. The situation in Kurdistan was good when I were there. We should either go to Europe or go back to Kurdistan,” he said. “We were forced to leave our home. There is conflict everywhere with the YPG (Kurdish force), Daesh and the Syrian government. What can we do?”
European Council President Donald Tusk said last month that the days of irregular migration to Europe are over after the deal with Turkey, reached after EU countries were overwhelmed last summer by waves of refugees, most escaping the Syrian war.
The main point of the agreement calls for the return of migrants from Greece to Turkey, including Syrian refugees. In return, the EU will resettle one Syrian refugee for each person returned from Greece.
“I will not return to Turkey. Turkey is our enemy! How can we live there? If they force us to leave I will go back to Kurdistan,” a young refugee from the Syrian-Kurdish city of Qamishlu told Rudaw, explaining he had spent four years living in the Kurdistan Region.
Kurdish refugees from Syria, Iraq and Iran complained of their difficult conditions at the makeshift camp, saying they were struggling with shortages of food, money and under rains and cold.
More than 10,000 migrants are now stranded at Idomeni. Charities are reporting greater numbers of desperate people arriving, with nowhere left to go.
from Rudaw http://ift.tt/221roef
via Defense News