At least 18 riot police officers have been wounded in clashes with a stone-throwing crowd of people designated by Macedonian officials to be “economic migrants”, who have been protesting against the erection of a new fence on the border with Greece.
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Between 700 and 1,500 migrants, coming mainly from Algeria, Morocco, Iran and Pakistan, have been stranded near the Greek border town of Idomeni for almost two weeks now after Macedonia restricted passage in the wake of the November 13 terror attacks in Paris.
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.
On Saturday, a migrant was seriously injured after being electrocuted at the railway station in Idomeni, just across from Gevgelija on the Greek side of the border, police said. Some Iranians have sewn their lips shut.
An IOM monitoring group says of these some 105,000 refugees have left Greece for Macedonia. “Profiling asylum seekers on the basis of their alleged nationality infringes the human right of all people to seek asylum, irrespective of their nationality and to have their individual cases heard”.
“We would like to underline that the border will remain open”, said spokesman Aleksandar Gjorgjiev. The source said the decision came after they were informed by Croatia and Serbia that migrants who were not from war zones would be returned.
Europe is facing the worst refugee crisis since World War II as more than 850,000 people have entered the European Union countries this year with almost half of them entering Greece.
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One Moroccan man denied entry into Macedonia was taken to hospital with severe burns on Saturday after climbing on top of a train carriage and touching a live wire.
