Macedonia sent special police reinforcements by helicopter Monday to its border with Greece, after repelling hundreds of frustrated Iraqi and Syrian refugees with tear gas and stun grenades when they tried to force their way across the border, Reports Associated Press.
Meanwhile, in other part of Europe, clashes with police broke out as work got underway to clear part of the shanty town outside Calais in northern France where migrants are trying to reach Britain, reports Reuters.
Thousands of desperate refugees have been stuck for days on the Greek side of the border, overflowing from a packed refugee camp at Idomeni into the surrounding fields as they waited for Macedonian authorities to let them continue their trek through the Balkans. Only a tiny trickle of people from specific countries have been allowed to cross every day.
Chanting “Open the border!” and “We want to go to Serbia!”, the protesting migrants broke down a gate at a nearby rail crossing Monday after pushing their way past Greek police.
Macedonian police repelled the protesters. Several women and children were nearly trampled in the melee and Macedonian authorities said one officer was injured.
Macedonian police opened the crossing to receive about 50 people just before midday Monday but closed it again after the clashes. A police spokeswoman said a train with 450 refugees left the Greek border early Monday and was heading for Serbia.
Macedonia has said it will only allow in as many people as Serbia accepts, and Serbia has been responding to refugee caps set by Austria further up the migrant trail into Western Europe. This has led to a huge bottleneck in Greece, where authorities say more than 22,000 people are stuck and more are arriving every day.
About 6,500 Syrian and Iraqi refugees are camped out around Idomeni, with another 500 moved to a hastily erected camp on a small concrete landing strip 20km away.
While in Calais, Police lobbed tear gas around midday, about 150-200 migrants and activists threw stones, and three makeshift shelters were set ablaze, according to a Reuters photographer at the site.
Earlier, one person was arrested for trying to stop a group of about 20 workers under heavy police protection from clearing the site, where about 3,000 people are staying.
Regional Prefect Fabienne Buccio had said the police presence was needed because “extremists” could try to intimidate migrants into turning down housing offers or buses to reception centres.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said last week that authorities would work with humanitarian organisations to relocate the migrants to a nearby park of converted shipping containers or other reception centres around France.
On Thursday, a judge upheld a government order to evict migrants living in the southern part of the camp, although a few makeshift buildings of social importance such as a school and a theatre are to remain untouched.
Thousands of migrants fleeing war and poverty, from Afghanistan to Syria, have converged on the northern port over the past year. Many attempt to climb illegally onto trains using the Channel Tunnel or into lorries heading to Britain where they hope to settle. Their presence has led to tension with some of the local population and to a permanent police deployment.
In recent weeks Austria — at the north end of the Balkan corridor — has severely restricted the inflow of migrants, causing a domino effect through the Balkans. Many of those countries are now refusing to let Afghan refugees in, although UN authorities say no one has explained to them who made this decision or why.
Diplomatic tensions are rising too, with criticism mounting against Austria. Athens has threatened to block decisions at an upcoming EU-Turkey summit unless the bloc forces members to shoulder more of the refugee burden.
Authorities say over 1,800 people a day have reached Greece’s islands from Turkey in February, slightly down from 2,175 a day in January before the latest border restrictions.
After long delays, Greek authorities have constructed a series of screening centres and transit camps for migrants. But the centers are now all overflowing, forcing hundreds of families to sleep outside in a central Athens square or at a passenger terminal in the port of Piraeus.