Migrants and refugees stranded at a Greek camp on the closed border stormed a fence on Sunday and were repulsed by Macedonian police. By Sunday morning, there were more than 11,200 people at Idomeni.
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Macedonian police fired a round of tear gas on Wednesday to disperse a group of stranded migrants protesting on the Greek side of the razor wire fence dividing the two countries, a Reuters witness said.
The Macedonian foreign ministry said Skopje has been continuously requesting from Athens “cooperation, information sharing and preventive action to dissuade violent rioting of migrants and illegal border crossing from Greek into Macedonian territory”.
Many of them are refugees fleeing war in Syria and Iraq.
Tensions mounted in Idomeni on Sunday a day after pamphlets were distributed in Arabic at the camp that the border would be reopened.
The minor trouble came a day after dozens of migrants and refugees were injured in clashes with Macedonian police which the Greek prime minister deplored as “a disgrace for European civilization”.
“We don’t have any information who is exactly doing that, but definitely it’s not the solution in this situation”, she told AFP.
The use of teargas by the police of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) against migrants and refugees was condemned by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
Efforts are also under way to peacefully clear another makeshift camp at the port of Piraeus housing about 5 000 people.
Migrants carried a man who was injured during the scuffles with police. Several hundred asylum seekers pushed the wagon towards the border with their bare hands, having filled the carriage with rocks meant to be used as weapons against the police.
Germany said it was watching developments there “with concern” and urged all states to ensure border security was strictly in line with human rights. “Harm is done to perceptions of refugees and to Europe’s image alike”, he added.
The thousands of people in the camp are staying put in hopes that the border will open and they will be able to continue their journeys northward.
“The indiscriminate use of chemicals, rubber bullets and stun grenades against vulnerable populations, and particularly without reasons for such force, is a unsafe and deplorable act”, Kyritsis said. People get hurt and property is damaged.
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In recent days, media and public attention has focused on how the European Union-Turkey agreement is being implemented in the Aegean islands and in Turkey. “At Idomeni, about 11,000 have been sleeping for many weeks now in the open in dismal conditions, fuelling hopelessness and despair”, the United Nations official stressed. “Among those with breathing difficulties were quite a few women and children”, he said.
