Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski confirmed that the facility being built in Skopje’s Bardovci area will serve as a center for asylum seekers.

Local citizens have been protesting for days after construction began. Protests are expected to intensify now that the Zaev regime is announcing it will accept an unspecified number of Afghan refugees in Macedonia.

In a Facebook post, Spasovski citerd recommendations from the ombudsperson and international organizations for human rights calling on Macedonia to build a new center for asylum seekers as the reason why the new facility is being built. Spasovski insisted that the center will be secure and will not allow the migrants to flee.

Macedonia sits straight on the main Balkan migrant route and their flow has continued even after the major 2015/16 crisis was ended.