I commend the Macedonian police officers, who handled the whole situation very well despite injured colleagues, said Interior Minister Oliver Spasvoski, who last night with Deputy Interior Minister Mitko Chavkov visited policemen who were injured in the clash with a group of migrants on the border with Greece.
Deputy Minister of Interior Chavkov said that because of the specific situation, the police could not adequately react and he expressed regret that their Greek counterparts on the other side of the border, did not help in resolving the situation, which according to Chakov is the reason why so many Macedonian police officers were injured.
“Although the use of force was justified due to the specifics of the situation, mainly people were on the other side of the border, officers were not able to respond appropriately and on time. I regret that our Greek colleagues from the Greek police force from the other side of the border who were present, but did not respond adequately and in a timely manner, because the responsibility was theirs. This is the reason why our colleagues were injured”, said Deputy Minister Chavkov.
The incident, as reported by the Interior Ministry, 18 police officers were injured.
Yesterday, around 13.30, a group of hundreds of migrants who were not allowed entry into the country because of the measures for selection and profiling migrants, attacked, and started throwing stones at members of the Macedonian security forces, who at the time were setting up the wired fence in quota 59 of the Macedonian-Greek border.
The Minister of Health, Nikola Todorov, who is head of the steering committee for dealing with the migrant crisis, during yesterday’s visit to Gevgelija noted that the installation of the fence was for greater security and to control migrants entering the Macedonian territory in accordance with the decisions of the other Member States of the EU and the countries of the Balkan route.
