Police in Macedonia fired tear gas and stun grenades at desperate migrants stranded for days at the Greek border and who are demanding passage to western Europe, as soldiers began erecting a metal fence to keep them out.
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Greek police didn’t intervene to stop the migrants but did, at one point interpose themselves to protect their Macedonian colleagues, as the migrants would not target the Greeks.
Macedonian riot police block migrants from entering into Macedonia after clashes with a violant group of migrants, on the border line between Macedonia and Greece, near southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija, Saturday, Nov. 28, 2015.
Migrants hurl stones at Macedonian policemen during clashes at the…
Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia say they began filtering the migrants after Slovenia, further along the route, announced it would start doing the same. Several eastern European countries, such as Hungary, have constructed permanent fences to control the influx.
The interior ministry later said that 18 policemen were injured, two of whom were hospitalised after the incident.
The movement of citizens from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan continues uninterrupted.
Macedonia said it was taking a similar tack.
Eighteen police officers were injured, and two of them were hospitalized, after violence broke out on Saturday at Macedonia’s southern border with Greece, officials said.
The source said the crossing from Greece to non-EU member Macedonia would remain open and that the fence was aimed at ensuring refugees did not try to slip across at other spots. “We will still allow the migrants from war-affected countries to pass”, Reuters reported.
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On Thursday, around 200 people tried to break through a barbed-wire fence on the Greece-Macedonia border.
