The tumult began when police determined to permit a small group of migrants with younger youngsters to cross the frontier and crowds within the again squeezed them towards the shielded police wall.
Advertisement
No-man’s land, where men, women and children had slept in squalor under open skies appeared largely empty, though more people are certain make their way from Greece.
Thousands of refugees tried to push through police lines on the Greece-Macedonia border.
Several children also lost their parents in the chaos.
Hundreds of mostly Syrian refugees forced their way over the Macedonian border Saturday as police hurled stun grenades in a failed bid to stop them from breaking through, an AFP reporter said. At least a dozen were slightly injured in clashes with police.
The desperate scenes come after Macedonia declared a state of emergency Thursday in its southern and northern border regions as it struggles to deal with the flow of migrants.
More arrived by foot on the Greek side as morning broke, many of them Syrian refugees brought by boat chartered by the Greek government to the mainland from inundated Greek islands such as Kos. About 45,000 crossed through Macedonia during the past two months.
Some 104,000 migrants and refugees have landed on Italian shores so far this year, while Greece has seen an influx of around 150,000 people, according to the global Organisation for Migration.
Hours after Friday’s clashes, however, Macedonian police started letting small groups of families with children cross by walking along railway tracks to a station in the nearby Macedonian city of Gevgelija, where most take trains to the border with Serbia.
The atmosphere grew tense at the makeshift camp as migrants, who had been relying on aid agencies to distribute food and water, were drenched by an overnight rainstorm.
They massed close to a razor wire separating them from Macedonian policemen with machine-guns. Some raised their babies above their heads to try to persuade the officers to let them through.
“They are supposed to be our brothers but they turn their backs on us”.
A police officer advised The Related Press that the drive is simply following the federal government’s orders to dam the refugees from getting into the nation.
“Until we receive a different order, the situation here will remain like this”, said the man, who refused to be named.
Macedonia and Serbia are not EU member states. REUTERS/Alexandros Avramidis Migrants gather at Gevgelija train station in Macedonia after crossing Greece’s border, Macedonia, August 22, 2015.
After a brief respite aboard a Greek passenger ship, Syrian refugee Mohamed has found himself stranded on a filthy, chaotic strip at the Macedonian border, his way to the relative security of northern Europe blocked by razor wire and riot police.
Advertisement
European Union border agency Frontex said this week that 107,500 migrants, many crossing from Turkey to Greece, were detected at EU borders in July – the third consecutive monthly record and the first time that the monthly number topped 100,000.
