Hundreds of migrants force their way over Macedonian border

Police, supported by armoured vehicles, spread razor wire over railways used by migrants.

Hours after Friday’s clashes, however, Macedonian police started letting small groups of families with children cross by walking along railway tracks to a station in the nearby Macedonian city of Gevgelija, where most take trains to the border with Serbia. A man holding a baby got tangled in razor wire separating the two sides. Some raised their infants above their heads to attempt to persuade the policemen to allow them to by way of.

The atmosphere grew tense at the makeshift camp as migrants, who had been relying on aid agencies to distribute food and water, were drenched by an overnight rainstorm. “They don’t care about our tragedy”.

As heavy rain poured, some migrants took off their shirts and booed and shouted insults on the cops in camouflage fatigues.

Hundreds more migrants could be seen arriving Saturday morning. Up to 2,000 migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Asia poured over the border daily and pressed to board trains going north, small children squeezing through open carriage windows.

Ivo Kotevski, a spokesman for Macedonia’s Interior Ministry and the Macedonian police, told CNN Saturday that the country is under great pressure from the Greeks to find a solution.

The situation at the border with Greece has not been helped by Macedonia’s tense relationship with Athens.

Few, if any, of the migrants need to stay in Greece, which is within the grip of a monetary disaster.

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.

Hundreds of migrants have made their way into Macedonia after being initially blocked by security forces at the border with Greece.

Macedonian officials had, however, allowed a few migrant families, children and pregnant women, to cross the border on Friday.

“I don’t know why are they doing this to us”, said Mohammad Wahid, an Iraqi. “I just want to talk to him”.

Thousands of migrants have broken through police lines into Macedonia at the country’s border with Greece. More than 3,000 predominantly Syrian and Afghan refugees had congregated in the border region in an attempt to travel north to wealthier European Union countries they believe are more capable of taking in asylum seekers.

Macedonian authorities have insisted that they did not mistreat desperate refugees who were trying to leave Greece – despite beating them with truncheons and firing stun grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas at them.

“Macedonian authorities are responding as if they were dealing with rioters, rather than refugees who have fled conflict and persecution”, said Amnesty International’s Deputy Europe Director Gauri van Gulik on Friday, adding, “This kind of para-military response is an unacceptable…”

More than 41,000 migrants have been processed since mid-June.