The child in the ambulance had an acute lung infection and was in distress. The child’s father rode in the ambulance, while his mother waited in one of the heated safe spaces with her other children, who were also sick and coughing. One of them, an eight-year-old boy, had an eye infection, which one of the Red Cross doctors treated with eye drops. They waited for several hours until the father returned with the infant. Although the child remained unwell, the family decided to leave for Serbia before sunset.
It hadn’t started snowing yet, but it was inhumanely cold in Tabanovce. Even the Macedonian social workers struggled to stay warm, despite knowing how to dress for the weather and having access to a few air heaters in their deposit tents. They stayed indoors most of the time, coming outside only when needed or for a quick check. At one point during the day, when all the food packets had been distributed at the food stand, a South African volunteer had to go to the Red Cross tent to request more packets, since all the Red Cross workers were inside.
While most of the refugees and migrants had received some winter clothing, especially warmer jackets, many lacked warm accessories such as proper hats, gloves and shoes. To protect themselves from the blistering weather, some wore all the clothes they had come with. Mothers tried to keep their infants warm by covering them with piles of blankets. Still, many of the children and the adults had colds and the flu. Some had their first stop at the Red Cross to grab some medication and to check if their children were well enough to continue the travel.
Still, even when the doctors would advise them not to travel, most of them decided to leave. One of the women who was referred to the doctor had a three-year-old daughter, who had leukemia and needed blood transfers, which her mother could provide, since they had the same blood type. Although the doctor advised to wait for an ambulance and go to Skopje, when the woman realized that the process would take at least five hours, she eventually decided to postpone the procedure until reaching Serbia and continue traveling with her husband and their friends. It was a difficult decision for her to make, over the course of several hours of conferring with her husband in the heated shelter for women, since her daughter was weak and not feeling well at the time.
Daily over 1,000 refugees and migrants arrived by train, coming from Gevgelija, Macedonia’s registration point. Sometimes, however, people arrived in smaller groups, brought there by overpriced taxis and buses,exploiting the situation.The numerous unheated tents that UNHCR set up in front of the train station remained mostly empty, as the majority of the refugees and migrants chose to continue their journey to Serbia and subsequently, Western Europe. They had to walk 4km on foot to reach Presevo, Serbia, as the Macedonian government did not provide transportation. The road had only recently paved. Before that, the refugees had to walk next to a farm fields, muddy and uneven terrain. The walk was especially difficult for children and pregnant women.
The government had nevertheless decided to provide transportation for people with disabilities and the elderly. On my first day of visiting Tabanovce, upon my arrival, I saw an elderly man lying on a hospital bed being carried out from one of the shelters to a car. He and his family had waited for the authorities to provide transportation for him. In a similar situation an elderly woman, too exhausted from the trip to continue walking, and a man with an amputated leg were transported. The man was a Yazidi from Iraq, who was as at his place of worship, when ISIS bombed it, leaving some dead and many wounded.
While transportation constituted essential support for these people, the main problem was that it took a long period of time for the vehicles to arrive, sometimes even five hours, which ultimately meant that they would arrive later in the day or at night in Serbia, when it was more dangerous and difficult to travel.That was why some of the elderly and those with disabilities preferred to keep moving on foot with family members or friends, fearing potential separation from their companions and other complications that the delay waiting for the car might cause.
Apart for grabbing some sandwiches provided by the Red Cross, a warm cup of tea and some clothes given by other nonprofits, there wasn’t not much reason to stay longer in Tabanovce. That became especially clear in the afternoon, as the refugee and asylum seekers are racing to get to Serbia before sunset. Most of them ate the sandwiches, biscuits and other food products sitting on the cold ground or on their luggage. They lingered longer exploring the donated clothes stand, set up by one of the nonprofits, as most of them were in dire need of winter shoes and clothes. Many were wearing sneakers that were not waterproof and did not keep warm. The amount of clothes at Tabanovce, however, was insufficient, especially when it came to children’s clothes.
