Quelle: The Telegraph

Hundreds of migrants and refugees tried to force their way past in an attempt to enter Macedonia

Violent clashes broke out on the Greek-Macedonian border when hundreds of migrants tried to force their way past the Macedonian police and army into Macedonia.

Migrants, angry at being stuck in Idomeni for weeks, threw rocks and bottles at the Macedonian police, and pulled apart the razor wire marking the border between Greece and Macedonia.

Macedonian police responded with baton rounds.

Several migrants managed to evade police lines and run into Macedonia but at least a dozen were caught and returned to the Greek side.

Greek police, who on previous days had made attempts to maintain order by deploying themselves in police lines in front of the Macedonian police stood down and allowed the crowd to get right up to the border.

Thousands of migrants from countries other than Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq have been stuck on the Greek side of the border for several days, when Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia said they would no longer accept ‘economic migrants’.

Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis are still being allowed through the border at Idomeni, causing many from other nationalities to become angry.

Several hundred new migrants from countries other than Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq arrive everyday.

There have been protests on the border for the past week but today’s clashes mark the first such escalation of the situation.

On Monday, a small group of Iranians sewed their lips shut in a silent protest, trying to highlight that no one was listening to their problems.

A camp similar to Calais has built up on the border; migrants sleep in small tents and burn trees and rubbish at night stay warm. The UNHCR and other NGOs provide some aid.

‘It’s pure racism: allowing some nationalities through but not others’, Francis, a 35-year-old who was unemployed in Nigeria, one of a small number of Nigerians waiting at Idomeni, said.

„We want the EU leaders to take notice: to see how people are sleeping here, how we’re living. The weather is getting colder on a daily basis. People are really suffering. They’re trying to express their anger, how they’re feeling.“

„I feel angry at the police,“ Mohammed Saboul, a 33-year old Moroccan said whilst showing a bruise where he had been hit with a baton.

„My friend had his tooth knocked out. I feel very angry but also very sad. I just want to go to France where my family live, where my life is.“