Tension between migrants, refugees at Greek-Macedonian border

Other migrants lowered his severely burned body to the ground and covered it with a sheet.

Wednesday’s violence broke out after about 200 people were denied passage and began walking, for several kilometres (miles), alongside a newly erected border fence, seeking an alternative opening.

It will receive tents, generators, ambulances, water pumps, and other supplies to help house migrants and refugees. According to Balkan Newsbeat, police have moved in to clear Idomeni and blocked all entry to Macedonia offering trains back to Athens and Thessaloniki in Greece instead. One Macedonian officer fired warning shots in the air.

More than 800,000 individuals, most fleeing war, poverty and persecution in the Middle East, have arrived in Europe this year The continent has struggled to deal with the unprecedented flow of people. Over 1,500 people are stuck on the border, mostly Indian, Moroccan, Bangladeshi and Pakistani.

Tensions have risen in the area with migrants and refugees holding a sit-in protest on the railway line connecting the two countries and clashing with police forces.

As EU home affairs ministers gathered in Brussels on Friday, Greece was put under mounting pressure to cooperate with EU demans or face being barred from Schengen for up to two years.

Despite using tear gas, 150 riot police on the Greek side near the village of Idomeni failed to budge a small group of mainly Iranian migrants – some holding small children – who set up barricades to prevent refugees from entering Macedonia.

European Union diplomats said suspending Greece from the open-border rules – activating Article 26 of the Schengen treaty so that people arriving at ports and airports from Greece were treated as coming from outside the Schengen zone – could be discussed at a meeting of European Union interior ministers on Friday.

European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said Thursday “there are a certain number of improvements that need to be done”. His injury sparked violent protests in the border area among those waiting to cross.

He said work was moving ahead on building screening centers on its Aegean Sea islands.

Hungary’s prime minister says the country is filing a lawsuit against the European Union objecting to a mandatory plan to distribute migrants among members of the bloc.

This is the second death from electrocution of an asylum seeker since last Saturday at the border between Greece and Macedonia, where about 6,000 refugees remain trapped following Macedonia’s decision to allow only people from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan to transit through its territory. The Greek government’s response to the refugee crisis has come under criticism from some European Union officials.

But the Financial Times reports that other countries are vexed by Athens’ refusal to call in a special mission from Frontex, the European border agency; its unwillingness to accept EU humanitarian aid; and its failure to revamp its system for registering refugees. The door is in Turkey.