Macedonia migrants: Border security measures defended

Macedonia has defended its handling of security at the country's border with Greece, where migrants were beaten back with truncheons and riot shields.

The government had to act because up to 3,500 were entering each day, but migrants had not been mistreated, said Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki.

The migrants, many from the Middle East, want to reach northern EU states.

Amnesty International said they had been treated more like rioters rather than refugees.

Macedonia has declared a state of emergency to cope with the situation.

 Hundreds of migrants advanced on the border's security forces on Friday.
Mr Poposki told the BBC he had not seen pictures of people being beaten back but there had been an "intervention" after the situation had "dramatically deteriorated".

He said: "In the last several days there has been a dramatic increase of inflow of migrants and we have reached numbers of 3,000 to 3,500 per day which obviously is not something a country of two million people and our resources can handle on a daily basis.

"We had to reinforce the control of illegal entry of Macedonian territory."

Medecins Sans Frontieres said it had treated 10 people with wounds from stun grenades fired by Macedonian troops near the Greek border village of Edomeni.

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