Riot police in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) fired tear gas and reportedly stun grenades on Friday to disperse thousands trying to enter the country from neighbouring Greece.

The crowd, from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, many of them Syrian refugees, had spent a night in the open in no-man’s land after FYROM declared a state of emergency and effectively blocked its southern border to migrants. At least eight people were reported injured in Friday’s clashes.

Up to 2,000 migrants a day have crossed the frontier in recent weeks, heading north to Hungary and onto Western Europe through the borderless Schengen zone.

The United Nations refugee agency is on the ground, and has urged the government to allocate more space to provide shelter for migrants and refugees on its side of the border. The Red Cross is also present.

Some 50,000 migrants arrived on Greek shores from Turkey in July 2015 alone. (…)
euronews