Macedonian police have fired tear gas and stun grenades after a few hundred migrants angry at long delays in entering Macedonia broke a gate on the Greek-Macedonian border.
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Werner Faymann insists his country must control its borders to stop the “unorganized chaos” he says has characterized the EU’s approach to dealing with the migrant crisis.
A baby sleeps in the arms of a man in the makeshift refugee and migrant camp at the Greek-Macedonian borders near the Greek village of Idomeni, on March 1, 2016, where thousands of people are stranded, as anger mounted over travel restrictions on migrants.
Police fired several rounds of teargas into the crowds at the crossing next to Idomeni camp, the main transit point for refugees travelling towards western Europe where close to 10,000 are stranded. Border restrictions further n…
At least 30 people required first aid, a medical charity said, while a Macedonian policeman was taken to hospital.
Europe is in the second year of its biggest migration crisis since World War II.
With Austria and Balkan states capping the numbers of migrants entering their soil, there has been a swift build-up along the Greece-Macedonia border with Athens warning that the number of people “trapped” could reach up to 70,000 by next month.
New York-based Human Rights Watch blamed “discriminatory border closures” and the cap imposed by Austria for the crisis.
He said Tuesday that Austria is neither a “waiting room for Germany” nor- in an allusion to Greece – prepared to accept the “policy of waving through” migrants to the rest of the European Union through Austria.
“It demonstrates once again the EU’s utter failure to respond collectively and compassionately to refugee flows”. “On the route from Athens police kept stopping us at petrol stations and told us that the border was still shut”.
“Greece and other countries on the front line are giving these people generous help, which needs the collaboration of all countries”.
The Greek army completed more temporary shelters in northern Greece over the weekend, and at the government’s request, local authorities in central Greece, opened indoor stadiums, conference centers, and hotels that have gone out of business to house migrants, while the Education Ministry called on school children to join the effort with donation drives.
Despite all the criticism, the Austrian government said it will stick to the decision.
Local authorities said they meant to handle the operation “smoothly”, proposing to relocate the migrants to a state-run container shelter nearby or other refugee centers across France.
More than 117,000 migrants have reached Greece’s eastern Aegean islands from Turkey so far this year – compared with 4,500 in January and February 2015.
They said the US$3.35 billion would be better spent being given directly to the migrants in Turkey and for them then to be dealt with by the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR. By 10am on Tuesday, a group of volunteers with the Hellenic Red Cross had begun distributing packages of dry food and water to hundreds of Syrians, Afghans, Iranians and Iraqis in Piraeus.
“The situation was very bad. There are many ill children who are coughing, and we spent the night in this tent under heavy rain”. Yesterday, the Macedonian Foreign Minister defended the use of tear gas against migrants, saying the country’s security forces were protecting themselves against violence.
Small groups of refugees have been arriving at the border in a steady flow, mostly on foot after walking up to 18 miles along highways.
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One was Ahmed Majid, a 26-year-old Iraqi travelling with his wife and two children.
