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Migrants occupy Athens rail station in border passage bid

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Athens: Greek police fired tear gas on Friday to disperse Migrants who had gathered in a field near the country’s border with Northern Macedonia in the hope of making their way illegally up through the Balkans towards northern Europe.


Hundreds have made their way to the field in the village of Diavata since Thursday, galvanised by reports on social media of plans for an organised movement to cross Greece’s northwest border with Albania in early April.


Separately, Migrants holed up in Turkey were heading towards that country’s border with Greece following false rumours that Ankara had opened its border gate. Turkish authorities have detained nearly 1,200 Migrants there, Turkish media reported.


The protest has shut down Larissis Station, the main hub connecting Athens to the north, and unfolded hours after a similar move at the migrant camp of Diavata near Thessaloniki, where clashes erupted.


Authorities said the Athens demonstration was sparked by anonymous calls on social media over recent days, telling asylum seekers that human rights groups will assist them in crossing into North Macedonia and on to other EU states.


Both the government and the UN refugee agency have stressed that no such possibility exists.


In Athens, the migrants shouted “Saloniki” (Thessaloniki) and “Germany”, an AFP reporter at the station said.


At the Diavata camp, skirmishes broke out between migrants and riot police on Thursday and Friday, with the security forces making sporadic use of tear gas.


A senior migration ministry official said on Friday the demonstration was intended as a “message” to the European Union.


“It’s a message that Europe must understand that this is a problem demanding a European solution,” Miltiadis Klapas, general secretary of the migration ministry, told reporters at the station.


More than 70,000 refugees and migrants are believed to live in Greece in the wake of a mass influx beginning in 2015, mainly fuelled by the Syrian civil war. — AFP


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