One killed, two injured in migrant clashes at Greek border

A man was killed and two suffered injuries on Monday morning during violent clashes between migrants at Greece’s northern border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), the Athens-Macedonian News Agency has reported.

The cause of the clash between groups of migrants and refugees waiting to cross into the neutral zone between the two countries as they make their way to northern Europe was not clear nor was the identity of the casualty, though authorities say that tempers are running high as some 2,000 people have made the crossing in the last 24 hours and as many are waiting near the village of Idomeni for their chance.

Aid workers in the area have criticized the government for failing to take measures to ensure that arrivals who have traveled from the Greek islands to the country’s northern border are dropped off at a registration camp set up outside Idomeni and are instead left at a gas station some 20 kilometers from the camp that lacks rudimentary infrastructure. Police said there are currently around 500 people at the camp and some 2,000 at the gas station waiting to make the crossing.

Authorities in FYROM have clamped down in the past few months on the number of migrants and refugees they allow across the border, leading to huge bottlenecks building up on the Greek side of the crossing and stretching resources.