The number of migrants and refugees stuck at Greece’s border with Macedonia has been growing after Macedonian authorities imited entry into the country.
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A witness on the Greek side of the border told Amnesty worldwide that Macedonia’s Rapid Reaction Unit, an anti-terrorist police unit, had been beating refugees and asylum-seekers who were trying to enter Macedonia, and firing over their heads.
Those who could not cross, including many women and children, spent the rainy and chilly night in the open.
However, following clashes between police and migrants that left at least eight refugees injured, Skopje decided to allow in a limited number of the migrants so that they could continue with their journey to Western Europe.
It did not elaborate on what it considered vulnerable categories, but shortly after the announcement, Macedonian police allowed in a few hundred refugees, mostly families with children and pregnant women.
Then, thousands of others used the moment to run across a field not protected by barbed wire to enter Macedonia.
It happened after police let several hundred people through into Macedonia, having kept them out since Thursday under an emergency decree. Police fired tear gas and several people sustained leg wounds, apparently from grenade shrapnel.
The United Nations (UN) estimates that some 160,000 migrants have landed in Greece since the beginning of the year; 50,000 arriving in the past month alone. Most head into the latter in the hope of cramming on to trains and heading north, through Serbia and Hungary, to more prosperous Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden.
Most wish to travel through Macedonia and Serbia to reach northern Europe, via Hungary.
A bottleneck of people had formed at the border crossing by Saturday morning, and more refugees continued to arrive throughout the day.
Silhouettes of migrants are seen walking along a railway bridge, …
Thousands of rain-soaked migrants on Saturday rushed past the police at the border.
“They are supposed to be our brothers but they turn their backs on us”.
Mohannad Albayati, 35, from Damascus, travelling with his wife, two children and three brothers, said: “I passed one step but it is a long road to my destination”.
While migrants persisted to reach northern Europe by overland routes, other dramas were playing out in the Mediterranean north of Libya Saturday.
“The shocking scenes today are a result of extreme measures to prevent desperate people fleeing violence and war from crossing borders”, the statement said.
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Kotevski urged the global community not only to help with transportation, housing and handling of the current wave of migrants, but also to find a long-term solution to the crisis. Italian police said they had arrested six Egyptian nationals on suspicion of people smuggling following the rescue of a stricken boat on Wednesday.
