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Migrants Rush Across Border in Macedonia Migrants Rush Across Border in Macedonia
(about 1 hour later)
GEVGELIJA, Macedonia — Thousands of migrants on Saturday rushed past baton-wielding Macedonian police officers who tried to block them from entering Macedonia from Greece. The police fired stun grenades, and several people were injured. SKOPJE, Macedonia — Hours after several hundred migrants bypassed a line of baton-wielding police officers on Saturday to enter Macedonia from Greece, nearly all those remaining on the Greek side of the border were allowed in, according to video footage and human rights activists at the scene. By Saturday evening, only around 200 people were left behind a fenced area on the line that separates the two countries.
The tumult started when the police allowed a small group of migrants with young children to cross the frontier here and people in the back pushed them toward the shielded police wall. Many women and children fell to the ground, apparently fainting after squeezing past the cordon. Thousands of others, including women with babies and men carrying small children, then ran across a field not protected by barbed wire to enter Macedonia. Some of the people who entered continued their trip north, toward the Serbian border, via taxis and buses. But most headed toward the train station about three miles away in the border town of Gevgelija, joining more than 2,000 people there waiting for a train to Serbia and Hungary, and then on toward wealthier European countries.
There were no reports of the number and extent of injuries. Many children were separated from their parents in the chaos. Earlier in the day, the Macedonian police used stun grenades in an effort to restore control and to return those who had managed to slip across the border in an area where the police presence was thinner and where there was no barbed wire. Officers gave chase as migrants ran through fields near Gevgelija, but because of their sheer numbers, many escaped. Some officers kicked migrants and beat them with batons, but humanitarian workers said there were no serious injuries.
Several hundred people, mostly older migrants and children, remained on the Greek side of the border when order was restored. The migrants, most of them fleeing violence in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, had grown impatient after spending most of Friday night in open fields under heavy rainfall, according to activists. About 3,000 migrants crossed into Macedonia on Saturday, including those who slipped beyond the police cordon and those allowed in later.
It was the second day of clashes between the migrants and the Macedonian police, who are trying to block them from heading north toward other European countries where they could seek asylum. The cries of people seeking lost family members could be heard all over the train station, humanitarian activists said.
On Friday, the police fired stun grenades and clashed with the migrants, a day after Macedonia’s government declared a state of emergency on the frontier to stop the human tide. At least 10 people were injured. Local and international nonprofit organizations criticized the Macedonian police’s use of stun grenades and force on Saturday and on Friday, when officers tried to disperse a large group trying to cross the border. Human Rights Watch asked Macedonian authorities to ensure an immediate end to the police violence against migrants.
Migrants have poured into Greece and Macedonia this year, most of them fleeing wars in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. More than 160,000 have arrived in Greece, crossing to its Aegean Islands in inflatable dinghies from the nearby Turkish coast. About 45,000 migrants have crossed through Macedonia over the past two months. “These are very serious allegations of excessive force by the Macedonian police firing at people seeking protection,” said Emina Cerimovic, a research fellow at Human Rights Watch.
Most of the refugees in Greece head straight to the Macedonian border, where they cram onto northbound trains taking them closer to Germany, the Netherlands, Austria or Sweden. Ms. Cerimovic demanded “greater protection of the migrants, including children and those among them who may be fleeing war and persecution.”
“These men are heartless,” Yousef, a Syrian refugee who gave only his first name, said of the Macedonian police. “They don’t care about our tragedy.” Macedonia’s minister of foreign affairs, Nikola Poposki, reiterated appeals aimed at the European Commission on Saturday, asking for greater assistance and a more organized Europeanwide approach to dealing with the enormous influx of migrants.
One police officer said the officers were just following the government’s orders. “The support that we currently receive is symbolic,” Mr. Poposki said, “and most of the burden is on the Macedonian institutions. But we will do our best for the migrants that arrive to be registered and to be treated as humanely as possible.”
Work has started on the construction of a transit and reception center on the outskirts of Gevgelija to speed the processing of migrants and provide better support to them, said Ivan Frangov, the mayor of Gevgelija.
“It will ease up the whole situation not only for the migrants but for the local citizens as well,” Mr. Frangov said.
In an attempt to establish greater control and increase safety in the border regions and nearby cities, Macedonia’s government on Thursday declared a temporary state of emergency.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, more than 3,000 migrants a day have reached the border in the last two days. More than 42,000 have already crossed the borders of Macedonia, a tiny country of about 2.1 million people, in the last two months.
Greece has also seen an unprecedented wave of migrants this year. More than 160,000 have arrived so far in Greece, crossing to its small Aegean islands in inflatable dinghies from the nearby Turkish coast and straining resources. The migrants are ultimately headed to countries like Germany, the Netherlands, Austria or Sweden where they can apply for asylum.
Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski of Macedonia said the state of emergency was a temporary measure intended to control the flow of migrants “so that they will have more humane transport through Macedonia.”