Syrian refugees allowed to enter Macedonia

Over 1,500 Syrian refugees, trapped in no-man's land near the Greece-Macedonia border for three days, finally entered Macedonia without police intervention, according to an AFP report.

Earlier in the day, Macedonian police fired stun grenades on hundreds of refugees trying to force their way through the border, injuring dozens.

However, later in the evening police allowed all the migrants into the country, said the AFP report.

Police officers continue to guard the frontier but not a single person remained in the strip of land between Greece and Macedonia, where more than 2,000 people, including women and children, had been stuck since Thursday, according to AFP reporter. The migrants hope to cross into Serbia to the north and then make it to the European Union.

Macedonia and Serbia are not EU member states, but once the refugees make it across Macedonia and Serbia, they’ll be able to cross into Serbia’s northern neighbor Hungary, which is an EU state. Once they reach Hungary, they can travel throughout the EU (except the UK and Ireland) without showing documents at border crossings.

However, no government agency or other news agency have verified AFP’s claim.

On Friday, the refugees slept on the open ground amid a torrential downpour.

Macedonian police spokesman Ivo Kotevski said police did not want to use force to stop the refugees, but would ensure control of the flow of new arrivals.

He said no new people would be allowed to enter until the current group had moved on towards the north, "or we will have a humanitarian crisis in Macedonia".

Macedonia on Thursday declared a state of emergency and sealed its border in a bid to stop the influx, and its officers twice resorted to force to try to prevent people from entering the country. At least a dozen were slightly injured in clashes with police.