Macedonia: Migrants Fail In Attempt To To Storm Border Fence

Macedonia’s Interior Ministry said that one police officer was injured during an attempt by a group of migrants to force their way through the fence near the makeshift border crossing at Gevgelija. The migrants threw rocks toward the police officers, injuring one, and damaging a gate at the border fence.

The Interior Ministry reported that its officers used tear gas to prevent illegal entry into Macedonia, and managed to push the migrants back into Greece. The incident happened around 11h, as about 5.000 people were massed on the Greek side of the border fence, trying to push their way into Macedonia. MIA correspondents inform that at the moment the situation is calm, as the migrants are protesting by blocking the railway tracks. Macedonian police is working to repair the damage to the fence.

The incident disrupted the planned opening of the border for 50 refugees. Only 10 were able to cross before the incident erupted.

Macedonia has introduced restrictions by nationality and number of people allowed along the so-called Balkan route, as the countries further north along the route introduced similar restrictions. Only Syrians and Iraqis are currently allowed through, subject to stricter document controls, and their number is limited by the daily quotas introduced by destination and transit countries, to no more than 500 per day, and often less than that.

Greece has been an absolute nightmare in their mismanaging of illegal migrants. At no point do Greek authorities request IDs, rather it lets migrants from dozen countries who do not qualify as ‘refugees’: Pakistan, Marocco, Aghanistan, Bangladesh, Tunisia, Iran, Turkey etc. As European countries consider these migrants to be nothing else but economic migrants, they are not allowed passage. As a result, many remain stranded in Greece.