Macedonia sent back hundreds of refugees to Greece on Tuesday, a day after they bypassed a border fence in a mass push to continue their journey north to Europe’s prosperous heartland a move Greece blamed on “criminal misinformation” possibly spread by volunteers working with them.
Interior Ministry spokesman Toni Angelovski told The Associated Press the migrants “have been returned to Greece.”
About 1,500 people, frustrated at being stuck for weeks in a waterlogged tent city outside the closed crossing of Idomeni, pushed their way into Macedonia on Monday through an unguarded section of the border. They walked about 5 kilometres and forded a swollen stream near the Greek village of Hamilo.
A Macedonian official said 700 migrants who had been detained overnight were deported to Greece through the same location they entered. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss the matter with the press, also said about 50 journalists and volunteers detained with the migrants were released after paying fines of 250 euros (USD 280) for illegally entering Macedonia.
Greek police said groups of migrants were seen coming back to Greece from unguarded sections of the border east and west of Idomeni although Greece says it received no official notification or repatriation request from Macedonia.
A spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency in Idomeni, Babar Baloch, confirmed that many had returned to Idomeni.
About 200 people who had camped overnight near Hamilo went back to Idomeni on Tuesday, while Macedonian police guarded the area. It was not possible to account for all the migrants.
Despite repeated Greek appeals for them to move to available organized shelters, about 14,000 people are stuck in the Idomeni tent city in swampy conditions after days of heavy rain, and hundreds were queuing under a shelter Tuesday for food handouts.