Macedonian army starts building fence on Greek border

On Thursday, around 200 people tried to break through a barbed-wire fence on the Greece-Macedonia border.

One man appeared to break down, throwing himself on railway lines before the Macedonian police, screaming and flailing.

The refugees threw stones at police in protest against the decision of the Macedonian authorities to proceed with the construction of metal fencing along the border with Greece.

Macedonia has become the latest country to restrict the flow of migrants entering the country, erecting a fence on its border with Greece.

The Macedonian government claims the objective of building the metal fence is “to direct the inflow of people towards the controlled points for their registration and humane treatment”.

The violence broke out after one migrant, believed to be Moroccan, suffered an electric shock and was badly burned when he climbed on top of a train wagon on the Greek-Macedonian border.

Macedonia, along with other Balkan countries on the migrant route, began turning away “economic migrants” almost two weeks ago.

There was no official tally of injured migrants, although Macedonian police targeted them with stun grenades and plastic bullets.

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. At least four police officers were injured in the accident.

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. “We have chose to return to Athens and see what we will do”, said 41-year-old Fatemeh, from the Iranian city of Ahwaz.