Migrant dies in Greek border clash

A Moroccan man is said to have electrocuted himself to death by grabbing high-voltage train cables on the Greek border.

Idomeni, Greece - “We will all die here. We are not leaving.”

Abdul points to the lifeless body of a fellow Moroccan who electrocuted himself to death on Thursday by grabbing high-voltage train cables on the Greek border with Macedonia.

Police believe he did it intentionally, growing increasingly desperate after days trapped on the border.

Holding the man's body, a group of Moroccan men moved towards the border crossing with cries of “Allahu akbar” (“God is greatest”). Greek police fired tear gas to push them back.

Another Moroccan had been badly burned in a similar incident on Saturday.

“We have been here for five days,” says Mohammed, also Moroccan.

“We have no food and we are cold. Why won't they let us through? Aren't we human? We are not terrorists,” he told AFP.

With Macedonian authorities only letting through refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, migrants from other countries have been blocked on the border with Greece for days or even weeks.

Their anger boiled over early Thursday. Groups of migrants seized communal tents operated by humanitarian agencies and destroyed some prefab houses set up by the UN refugee agency.

Aid workers were told to quickly relocate to a safe distance.

“We were attacked at dawn. Our safety was in jeopardy, so we decided to move out and see how the situation evolves,” said Antonis Rigas, head of the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) mission to the area.

“International organisations and NGOs are advised not to enter the camp for security reasons,” the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said.

Local police say there are more than 3,000 so-called economic migrants from Iran, Morocco, Pakistan and Bangladesh in the area, in addition to more than 2,500 Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans.

Train connections between Greece and Macedonia have been blocked for days by Iranians occupying the railway tracks in protest at being blocked from moving on towards western Europe.

IOM said leaflets had been handed out in four languages, advising the migrants to leave within three days.

Another fight broke out when some migrants blocked the passage of refugees entitled to pass.

Greek riot police reinforcements were rushed in after the rival groups began throwing stones at each other.

“We are not economic migrants, we have money,” says Omid, a 35-year-old Iranian who was part of the border protest.

“I am Christian and in danger here. There are Muslims shouting 'jihad' and 'kill for Allah'. This morning they attacked us with stones and crowbars,” he says.

The authorities sent in two trains and buses, encouraging people with no hope of crossing the border to turn back to Athens and Thessaloniki - but only around 120 agreed to leave.

Yiannis Mouzalas, junior interior minister for migration, on Thursday told reporters that efforts would be made to end the border protest “without using violence”.

“There will be a solution within the next 10 days,” he said, raising the prospect of more unrest.

Violence also broke out over the weekend as Macedonian crews raced to complete a three-kilometre fence on the frontier.

On Saturday, a group of migrants trying to enter Macedonia pelted police with stones while officers fired stun grenades in their direction.

Several Macedonian police and army vehicles were damaged and 18 police officers slightly injured in the protests.

The UN refugee agency says about 895 000 migrants have landed on Europe's shores so far this year, with over 3 500 dying in the water.

The Greek coastguard on Thursday said a woman had drowned near the island of Farmakonissi and two people were still missing after their dinghy overturned.

Another child died on Tuesday near the island of Ro.

Since the summer, several European countries have been tightening their borders to check the influx - a trend that has been accelerated by the November 13 jihadist attacks in Paris.

Two of the attackers slipped into Europe through Greece posing as refugees from Syria's civil war, according to French prosecutors.

AFP