Migrants arriving in Greece find Europe's welcome has worn thin
ATHENS -- Europe is re-thinking its refugee policy after more than a million settled there last year, fleeing wars and poverty in the Middle East and North Africa.
New arrivals in Greece are finding things have changed.
Despite the freezing cold, the rough seas, and the risk of drowning, the migrants keep coming. More than a thousand people arrive each day in Greece, but now Europe's welcome mat is wearing thin.
Farshad Rahimi Fard told CBS News he left Iran in search of religious freedom, paying a smuggler nearly $3,000.
But he's now stranded in Greece, living in an abandoned hockey stadium. Farshad could face deportation after he, like thousands of others, was turned away by Macedonian border guards on the route to Germany.
"We tried to go, but the soldiers of Macedonia tell us 'Go back. No Iranian, go back.'"
Hundreds of other stranded migrants, many from North Africa, are being held under lock and key in a Greek detention center.
CBS News was denied permission to go inside, but one of the inmates sent us videos showing the conditions -- including a protest that he said was put down with tear gas.
Some European countries have built razor wire fences, and others will now only accept refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
As an Iranian, Farshad can go no further than Greece. His dreams of a new life in Europe are destroyed.
"We are human like other countries, we are not terrorists. Why the ways for Iranians is closed? Why?"
Nearly all of the migrants arriving in Europe set off in boats from Turkey. Last year, Europe promised Turkey around $3 billion in return for its help stemming the flow of people.
But so far, that plan hasn't worked.
