The EU yesterday said it was “very concerned” about the crackdown at the Greek-Macedonian border where Macedonian police fired tear gas at hundreds of refugees.
“The commission is very concerned by the images we saw yesterday [Monday],” European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said. “The scenes we just saw are not our idea of managing the crisis.”
Macedonian police on Monday fired tear gas as about 300 refugees forced their way through a Greek police cordon and raced toward a railway track between the two countries.
Photo: Reuters
Schinas recalled that non-EU Macedonia had “undertaken specific commitments” in October last year to work with EU states to ease Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II.
“It is up to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to protect those borders. The images show once again that the only solution is a collective solution, a European solution,” Schinas said. “All measures on the borders must be in compliance with international law, and European law.”
Thousands of refugees are stranded in Greece after Macedonia, along with other Balkan states including Serbia and EU members Slovenia and Croatia, imposed a daily limit on the number of refugees allowed to enter.
Macedonia’s foreign minister on Monday defended the country’s use of tear gas against refugees, saying security forces were protecting themselves against violence.
Several EU countries have expressed their impatience with Greece, accusing Athens of doing little to secure its borders and stem the migrant flow.
EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Christos Stylianides earlier announced that he would today propose a plan to provide emergency assistance within the EU, adding that Greece had requested aid.
“This is a necessary step to prevent humanitarian suffering,” Schinas added.
Greece’s government said it has asked for 480 million euros (US$522 million) in equipment and staff for the temporary camps to be set up for refugees trapped in the country.
More than 131,000 migrants and refugees have reached Europe via the Mediterranean this year, more than the total number in the first five months of 2015, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said yesterday.
Out of a total of 131,724 people who have arrived this year, 122,637 landed in Greece and most were fleeing the conflict in Syria, the agency said, adding an estimated 24,000 refugees in Greece were in need of accommodation as of Monday night.
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