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Thousands of migrants push towards EU border


              
Serbian police officers watch a crowd of migrants while they cross from Macedonia to Serbia, in the village of Miratovac near the southern Serbian town of Presevo, Monday, Aug. 24, 2015. The more than 5,000 migrants who reached Serbia overnight faced an overcrowded refugee center where they have to apply for asylum   the paper that allows them three days to reach Hungary. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Serbian police officers watch a crowd of migrants while they cross from Macedonia to Serbia, in the village of Miratovac near the southern Serbian town of Presevo, Monday, Aug. 24, 2015. The more than 5,000 migrants who reached Serbia over Serbian police officers watch a crowd of migrants while they cross from Macedonia to Serbia, in the village of Miratovac near the southern Serbian town of Presevo, Monday, Aug. 24, 2015. The more than 5,000 migrants who reached Serbia overnight faced an overcrowded refugee center where they have to apply for asylum the paper that allows them three days to reach Hungary. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

THOUSANDS of people from the Middle East, Asia and Africa have crossed from Macedonia into Serbia on their way to the European Union.

The rush over the border came after Macedonia lifted the blockade of its border with Greece, allowing thousands of refugees to storm past Macedonian police who tried to stop their entry by force.

Around 7,000 people, including many women with babies and small children mostly from Syria, crossed into Serbia over the weekend.

Some were pushed in wheelchairs and wheelbarrows or walked on crutches. Hundreds more entered Macedonia from Greece yesterday.

Refugees were heading for an overcrowded asylum centre in the Serbian border town of Presevo.

After they formally ask for asylum, they have three days to reach the border with Hungary, which is rushing to build a barbed wire fence on its border with Serbia to block the refugees.

The number of people that has hit the western Balkans has worried EU politicians and left the impoverished Balkan countries struggling to cope with the humanitarian crisis.

After entering Serbia, the refugees, fleeing wars and poverty, are heading towards EU-member Hungary from where they want to continue further north to richer EU countries, such as Germany and Sweden.