North Macedonia border barrier

The North Macedonia border barrier is a border barrier built by North Macedonia on its border with Greece. It was constructed as a response to the European migrant crisis. The construction of the barrier began in November 2015, modeled similarly to the Hungarian border barrier.^[1]

  North Macedonia

  Greece

North Macedonia and its Balkan neighbors (Greece to its south in grey):

  North Macedonia

  Albania

  Bulgaria

  Kosovo

  Serbia

History

See also: Timeline of the European migrant crisis

On 29 November 2015, the Macedonian army began erecting fences on the Greek border.^[2] A Moroccan man was injured in an accident that led to clashes between police and migrants that injured 18.^[3] In the early stage of the construction of the barrier, Macedonian police were attacked by the migrants, according to The Guardian.^[4] In February, Macedonian soldiers began erecting a second fence meters away from the previous one.^[5]

After Austria started to limit asylum applications on its territory in February,^[6] Slovenia, Serbia, and other Balkan states imposed restrictions on migrant entries.^[7] As a result, Macedonia restricted migrant entries to its territory, which stranded thousands of migrants in Greece, especially near Idomeni border crossing.^[7] On 29 February 2016, a group of hundreds of migrants attacked riot police with stones and attempted to break the border barrier using a battering ram made from vandalized street signs and a lamp post.^[8][9]

The European Union gave political and financial support for the fences. It was commented that it must be extraordinary that the European Union pays a third country to protect itself from a member country.

Idomeni migrant camp

In January 2016, Austria limited the number of immigrants that were allowed to be in the country at the same time.^[10] In February 2016, Austrian interior minister Mickl-Leitner announced a cap on the number of transiting migrants per day.^[11] Subsequently, Slovenia barred migrants from transiting through its territory and Macedonia announced the closure of its Greek border to migrants.^[12] Albania deployed extra police to guard its borders and received assistance from Italy in form of "men and equipment" on both land and sea.^[13] In March, Macedonia announced a plan to extend its 30 kilometres (19 miles) barrier to 320 kilometres (200 miles).^{[citation needed]}

In May 2016, Reuters reported that more than 10,000 migrants were settled on the border in what has become Europe's largest refugee camp with mosques, schools, and businesses.^[14]

See also

• North Macedonia portal

• Austrian border barrier
• Bulgarian border barrier
• Greek border barrier
• Hungarian border barrier
• Norway–Russia border barrier
• Slovene border barrier
• Greece–North Macedonia relations
• Accession of North Macedonia to the European Union