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Migrants scuffle with police at Macedonia’s border

Macedonia’s interior ministry says 18 police officers were injured, with two hospitalised.

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Clashes between riot police and migrants angry at being prevented from entering Macedonia from Greece have left up to 40 people injured.

Iranian migrants sit in no man’s land, demanding to be allowed to pass the Greek-Macedonian border, near the northern Greek village of Idomeni, on Friday, Nov. 27, 2015.

A FYROM army source quoted by Agence France-Presse said the crossing from Greece to FYROM would remain open and that the fence was aimed at ensuring migrants did not try to slip across at other spots.

The Moroccan man, one of those who have been banned from entering Macedonia, climbed on top of a stationary train carriage and touched a power cable overhead.

Earlier on Saturday, Macedonian soldiers began driving metal poles around 3 meters high into the cold, muddy ground, building a barrier similar to that erected by Hungary on its southern border.

Krause said there was a heavy deployment of police and military personnel at the border, where calm was said to have returned.

Balkan countries have clamped down at their borders recently to stem the largely unchecked flow of people, leaving tens of thousands stranded in Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia.

Days of protests by Iranians, Pakistanis, Moroccans and others stranded in squalid tent camps on the border, erupted into clashes on Saturday.

More than 720,000 people have arrived in Europe through Greece alone this year, according to the IOM, with just over half declaring themselves Syrian citizens.

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“Everyone will be allowed to pass except people who are not from war-affected regions”, he told AFP. The most popular route for migrants sees them move further north towards Germany and Scandinavia.

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