After half an hour, the protective fence was breached and a group of 20-30 people tried to illegally enter Macedonian territory, but were prevented in doing this.
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Mr Tsipras accused Macedonia of “shaming” Europe after the Balkan country’s police used plastic bullets, stun grenades and tear gas to beat back the refugees from the border fence.
Macedonian police responded with tear gas and positioned themselves behind armoured vehicles to avoid being hit by stones being thrown across the fence. Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said 200 people suffered breathing problems, 30 sustained injuries from rubber bullets – three of them children under 10 – and 30 had other injuries. Eight police and army vehicles were also damaged, the Ministry of Interior says in a press release.
Over a million people fleeing conflict poured into Europe, mainly through Greece, in the past year.
Denouncing the use of “excessive force” during Sunday’s incidents, Greek Deputy Public Order Minister Nikos Toskas said Greek authorities have stepped up efforts to relocate all refugees into organized hospitality centers by May, with the informal camps at Idomeni and Piraeus port, where 4,500 people are sleeping in the open, presenting the greatest challenges.
“I am told [some of them] are staying at Gevgelija [on the Macedonian side of the frontier] and go back and forth”, he said.
Tsipras on Monday blamed groups of non-Greek volunteers for “inciting” the migrants to storm the fence.
“Today we either break the border fence or die”, read one.
On Monday, Greece’s government announced that it had lodged two “very strong protests” with Macedonia. Greek government spokesman George Kyritsis added: “The indiscriminate use of chemicals, rubber bullets and stun grenades against vulnerable populations… is a risky and deplorable act”.
The German woman was arrested near the Idomeni refugee camp after officers found a can of pepper spray in her possession.
Asked about the actions of the Macedonian border guards, he said: “Controlling the borders must, in every country, be in line with global legal standards”. The violence increased friction between the two Balkan neighbors – at odds for a quarter-century over Macedonia’s official name – with Macedonia accusing Greece of doing nothing to stop the rioters and Athens denouncing Skopje’s heavy-handed response. Some Greeks fear accepting “Macedonia” could provide a basis for territorial claims by that country on a northern Greek province of the same name. 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.
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Achilleas Tzemos, MSF deputy field coordinator, told Reuters more than 300 people had been treated at the makeshift camp.
