Macedonian police fire tear gas and stun grenades at migrants inside Greece's border

Macedonian police fired tear gas and rubber bullets on hundreds of migrants who gathered at a border fence in the Idomeni migrant camp in Greece earlier today. A Macedonian official said that a large group of migrants left Idomeni camp on the morning of 10 April, Sunday, and pushed towards the fence.

"They threw rocks at the Macedonian police. The police fired tear gas in response," the official told the Reuters news agency. "The migrants were pushing against the fence but standing on the Greek side of the border. The fence is still there, they have not broken through."

Volunteers working for the Swedish charity Lighthouse Relief reported that rubber bullets had been fired at the refugees. The organisation posted photos of children being treated for the effects of tear gas and others holding rubber bullets.

A Greek police source told Reuters that there was tension in the area. Migrants at the camp have been asking for the border with Macedonia to be opened, but no one has been granted access for several weeks.
Local media reported that the unrest started after a brochure was released in Arabic that called on the refugees in Idomeni to gather at the border and attempt to cross it. Greek authorities have been requesting the migrants to move to reception camps, but this has met with little success.

Idomeni protests

Thousands of migrants are effectively trapped in Greece as a result of Macedonia closing its border with Greece.
"Trapping asylum seekers in Greece is an unconscionable and short-sighted non-solution that is causing suffering and violence," said Eva Cossé, Greece specialist at Human Rights Watch. "It demonstrates once again the European Union's utter failure to respond collectively and compassionately to refugee flows."
Violence flared at the border previously on 29 February when Macedonian police fired tear gas and stun grenades after refugees and migrants stormed a gate on the border.
The humanitarian non-governmental organisation Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF) told Human Rights Watch that it treated 22 people following the clashes, including 18 with respiratory problems from the tear gas and four were wounded, hit by rubber bullets and sticks. They said that 10 children, including some under age 5, were among the injured.
On 22 March, a refugee at the Idomeni camp set himself on fire, during protests demanding that Macedonia open its borders.