Hungary is racing to complete construction of a fence along its 175-kilometre border with Serbia to keep them out, a step that threatens to create a bottleneck of tens of thousands in Serbia. Police fired stun grenades, but didn’t manage to stop the rush.
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One Afghan couple were separated from their two children in the chaos.
It was the second day of clashes between the migrants and baton-wielding police who are attempting to block them from heading toward the European Union.
On Thursday, Macedonian authorities declared a state of emergency at Gevgelija, with police sealing the border and firing tear gas and stun grenades at the crowds.
At least eight people were injured in the confrontation including a youngster who was seen bleeding.
(AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski). Three boys migrants wait for the rest of their family to enter into Macedonia from Greece, on the border line with Greece, near the southern Macedonia’s town of Gevgelija, on Friday, August 21, 2015. The BBC reports as many as 44,000 refugees have crossed into the country in the past two months en route to wealthier nations within the European Union.
Greece, mired in its worst economic crisis in generations, has been found largely unprepared for a mass influx of refugees, mainly Syrians.
Most head straight to the country’s northern border with Macedonia, where they cram onto trains and head north through Serbia and Hungary on their way to the more prosperous EU countries such as Germany, the Netherlands or Sweden.
Large numbers, including children, spent Friday night in the open, though some were allowed to board a train north. As part of their “processing”, they get a temporary residents’ permit which can range from 30 days to six months, allowing them to apply for some form of civil protection status.
He held a little wide-eyed girl with curly hair in his arms and pointed toward the policemen: “They don’t care about our tragedy”.
A police officer told The Associated Press that the force is only following the government’s orders.
Local authorities in Idomeni said they had urged the Greek government to address the situation but that there had been no response.
As heavy rain poured, some migrants took off their shirts and booed and shouted insults at the policemen in camouflage fatigues. The weather turned cold and wet overnight, with fields next to the railway track where migrants have pitched tents becoming muddy.
Coils of razor wire have also been spread over rail tracks used to cross on foot to Macedonia from Greece, which has seen a surge in the number of people trying to reach its islands from Turkey.
“I don’t know why they are doing this to us”, said Mohammad Wahid, an Iraqi. “I just want to talk to him”.
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Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU’s Migration and Home Affairs Commissioner, insisted the commission had been working “day and night” to offer funding and other support to states struggling to cope with the influx of migrants from the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. The Greek coast guard said Friday that a patrol boat from Europe’s border agency Frontex had spotted a capsized boat off the island of Lesbos.
