Macedonia Declares State Of Emergency On Border Over Migrants

Police backed by armoured vehicles also spread coils of razor wire over rail tracks used by migrants to cross on foot from Greece to Macedonia. Macedonia shut the border to crossings on Thursday.

The shutdown came after days of desperate scenes at the local railway station as thousands of people pressed to board trains to Serbia, young children being passed through open carriage windows.

Responding to criticism, Mr Poposki said: “Macedonia’s definitely not a place where they [migrants and refugees] have been mistreated”. “The policemen let us on the train only because they felt sorry for the baby”. “Media reports and video have surfaced of Macedonian police using riot-control agents and truncheons to beat people who did not seem to be posing any threat”, it added.

“Our teams have never before seen so many people gathering at the border”. Some ate corn they picked from nearby fields. I cannot return and have nowhere to go. “If I stayed in Damascus I would be forced to fight sooner or later”, he told IRIN.

Al Jazeera’s Ivan Corkalo, reporting from the Greek border town of Idomeni, said thousands of stranded refugees, many of whom had no food or water, were in for a second hard night in no-man’s land.

Record numbers of migrants and refugees fleeing violence and poverty in countries such as Syria and Afghanistan are trying to reach Europe, despite the risks of perilous sea crossings and the inability of countries to provide adequate humanitarian assistance.

“We have to protect the border and allow entry to only a number of migrants to whom we can offer adequate, humane treatment”, said Interior Ministry spokesman Ivo Kotevsky.

At least 10 people fainted and were treated by aid workers during the clash.

Others have walked to Bulgaria from Turkey before making their way through Macedonia or Serbia and heading north to more affluent countries such as Germany, France and the UK.

Around 44,000 people have reportedly travelled through Macedonia in the past two months, meeting little border resistance. Greek authorities – particularly on the islands that are more accustomed to welcoming tourists – have been overwhelmed.

The border reopened for several hours on Friday afternoon but only a few dozen of the more than 3,000 people waiting managed to get through.

Macedonia and Greece have long enjoyed an uneasy relationship, rooted in a dispute over Macedonia’s name since it broke away from socialist Yugoslavia in 1991.

Obad, a 20-year-old migrant from Syria, said he and his traveling companions are not bothered by the chaos – because they have survived much worse.

For those already in Belgrade, one final border separates them from Hungary – the start of the EU’s passport-free Schengen zone, access to which would allow them to move with relative ease to other destinations in Europe.

Before heading for Lesbos, the Eleftherios Venizelos ferry had been used as a floating refugee registration center on Kos, an island near the Turkish coast where hundreds arrive daily in small boats.