When asked, Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani would not specify the number of Afghan refugees Macedonia has agreed to receive. Yesterday Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said that, in talks with the United States, he agreed to accept civilians from Afghanistan, until their eligibility to claim asylum in the US or elsewhere are determined. Zaev later said that the UN asked that six wives and children of their employees are admitted to Macedonia, as the central Asian country is being again taken over by the Islamist Taliban group.

According to Osmani, it’s still not clear when these six persons will arrive, and how many more will follow. “The country will be open to Afghan civilians, mainly those who worked in major international organizations”, Osmani said.

Macedonia was on the main Balkan migrant route, during the 2015/16 crisis, and was the key country in closing the route. Very few of the Afghan, Syrian and other migrants who crossed then, or since, remained in Macedonia – almost all of them opting to continue toward the core EU member states.