A week of rioting and coordinated assaults on the Greece-Macedonia border continued today, with migrants tearing fences down and launching tear gas at border police.
Yesterday, left wing activists were detained accused of instigating the ongoing unrest.
A man throws back to macedonian police a tear gas shell as migrants try to break down the border fence near their makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border in Idomeni, on April 13, 2016. (DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP/Getty Images)
Migrants use blankets to pull razor wire from the border fence between Greece and Macedonia at the makeshift camp near the Greek village of Idomeni on April 13, 2016. (DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP/Getty Images)
More than 10,000 migrants have been stranded near the village of Idomeni since February, when Balkan countries shut their borders to anyone wanting to head north.
Greek authorities have tried to get the migrants to move to official camps with electricity and supplies, but many have resisted as they plan to break into Europe illegally.
Exploding gas canisters rocked the camp Yesterday, with migrant protestors dragging a train wagon down the tracks and ramming it into a police position.
Over the weekend, hundreds of migrants stormed the border in a massive, coordinated assault. Police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.
Thousands of anonymous leaflets written in Arabic had been circulated at the camp, calling on the inhabitants to rise up together.
“Today we either break the border fence or die”, read one.
Greece’s left-led government has blamed volunteers and charity workers for the literature.
Yesterday police temporarily detained 17 people, mostly foreign nationals, during a crackdown on volunteers suspected of “spreading malicious rumors” in the Idomeni camp.
According to AP, Police have now announced that 16 of the detainees were subsequently released without charge, while a German man found carrying a knife was charged with possessing a weapon.
Men with their mouths covered raise their hands as migrants protest in the front of Greek police forces as around one hundred of them try to break down the border fence between Greece and Macedonia at the makeshift camp near the Greek village of Idomeni on April 13, 2016. (DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP/Getty Images)
The detainees were identified as German, Austrian, Swedish and Portuguese nationals, as well as two Greeks, a Palestinian resident in Greece, and a Syrian.
The number of migrants in the border camp peaked at around 15,000 and is now thought to be roughly 4000.
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