Ethnic Albanians flee poverty after EU visa move

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...