Migrants skirmish in Greece

Stranded migrants, await entry into Macedonia on the Greek side of the border photographed through a fence from Macedonian side of the border, near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija, Friday, Dec…

Macedonian officials are only allowing refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan to pass the border into the country.

One man died of electrocution while two others were injured on the Greece-Macedonia border as migrants and refugees clashed there on Thursday.

Themigrantsattempted to cross theborderfromGreecethrough a creek at a point not closed by thefencebefore Macedonian police pushed them back according to AP.

The Greek government said it is urging those migrants stuck at the border to come to Athens and apply for asylum in Greece.

A 30-year-old Pakistani man, known only as Eli, who has been living in Greece for six years and wishes to go on to Germany said: “Why aren’t they allowing us to cross?”

Frustration has risen in recent weeks in the European Commission, the EU executive charged with ramping up controls on the external borders, and among EU governments that Greece is failing to make use of available EU funds and personnel to ensure people arriving in the Schengen area are documented.

Macedonian cops fired tear gas at hundreds of largely Pakistani migrants who attempted to storm into the Balkan country from Greece on Wednesday demanding passage to more wealthy northern Europe. His injury sparked violent protests in the border area among those waiting to cross.

The EU Civil Protection Mechanism, originally conceived to cope with natural disasters such as earthquakes, will provide EU supplies of tents, generators and other equipment to help Greece accommodate people over the winter.

Greece recently turned down a deployment of Frontex officers to its border with Macedonia, saying their mandate was too broad.

Allies have grown increasingly impatient with Greek failures to even register and identify most of those arriving, let alone accommodate them and handle asylum requests as European Union rules dictate and that frustration has mounted sharply amid accusations that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s radical leftist-led coalition has refused to accept European Union help, notably foreign border guards.

Greek authorities are stepping up cooperation with European Union agencies to better control migrants after threats from some allies to suspend Greece from Europe’s Schengen passport-free zone, a senior European Union official said. “We’ve organized ‘return missions, ‘ for example to Pakistan; they’ve been rejected by the Pakistani state”, the minister said.

“Greece has full control of its land borders”, Mouzalas said.

Mouzalas told euronews that those reports were “a lie”, insisting Athens had asked for reinforcements from Frontex, the EU’s border agency.