The EU's decision to drop visa requirements for Macedonia on 19 December 2009 has led to a mass exodus of ethnic Albanians from the war-impoverished region of Likove to Belgium. Nobody is entirely sure how many have fled. But the schools are emptying. Entire families have sold their possessions, uprooted, and purchased the €100 one-way bus ticket to Belgium.
The promise of better life, of opportunity, has lured hundreds to an enterprise doomed to failure.
"Better to sleep in a bus...
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Nikolaj joined EUobserver in 2012 and covers home affairs. He is originally from Denmark, but spent much of his life in France and in Belgium. He was awarded the King Baudouin Foundation grant for investigative journalism in 2010.