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Between hope and despair: Refugees cross into Macedonia

Macedonia border Refugees
Macedonian police try to block the migrants entering Macedonia from Greece, on the border line between the two countries, near the southern Macedonia's town of Gevgelija. [Vlatko Perkovski/AP Photo]
Published On 23 Aug 2015

Hundreds of refugees have passed through the Macedonian border from Greece unhindered after two days of clashes in which police used stun grenades in a failed bid to prevent them from crossing.

Police and security remained at the border on Sunday, checking the refugees belongings and bags as they allowed them to pass through.

About 39,000 people, mostly Syrian refugees, have been registered as passing through Macedonia in the past month, twice as many as the month before.

They previously encountered little resistance at the border, but the recent influx had overwhelmed Macedonian authorities who earlier this week had declared a state of emergency and stopped many from crossing.

 

 

Macedonia border Refugees
Thousands of rain-soaked refugees had been trapped in a no man's land since Thursday. [Alexandros Avramidis/Reuters]
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Macedonia border Refugees
Most of the people are refugees from war in Syria and other conflicts in the Middle East. [Robert Atanasovski/AFP]
Macedonia border Refugees
Some refugees had spent days in the open with little or no access to food or water after Macedonia on Thursday declared a state of emergency and sealed its borders to refugees. [Ognen Teofilovski/reuters]
Macedonia border Refugees
Ivo Kotevsky, a spokesman for Macedonia's interior ministry, told Al Jazeera on Friday that the officers had not used violence against the refugees but had been forced to take measures to protect themselves and the border. [Darko Vojinovic/AP]
Macedonia border Refugees
Thousands of refugees stormed across Macedonia's border on Saturday as police lobbed stun grenades and beat them with batons, struggling to enforce a decree to stem their flow through the Balkans to western Europe. [Ognen Teofilovski/Reuters]
Macedonia border Refugees
Security forces managed to contain hundreds in no-man’s land. But several thousand others tore through muddy fields to Macedonian territory after days spent in the open. [Sakis Mitrolidis/AFP]
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Macedonia border Refugees
The crossings followed a second tense day in which Macedonian police fired percussion grenades and clashed with refugees who attempted to scramble over barbed wire fences to cross.[Ognen Teofilovski/Reuters]
Macedonia border Refugees
Macedonian police have now allowed hundreds of refugees to pass through their border from Greece after police fired stun grenades for a second day in a failed bid to stop them from breaking through. [Sakis Mitrolidis/AFP]
Macedonia border Refugees
Police and security remained at the border on Sunday, checking the refugees belongings and bags as they allowed them to pass through. [Boris Grdanoski/AP]