Macedonian border barrier

Slovenia's Prime Minister Miro Cerar has warned that there is a new route for illegal migrants who want to reach Europe.

"There is a new migrant route through the peninsula of Istria in the Adriatic Sea," said Cerar during an informal meeting of the European Council which was held in Malta.

Several dozen migrants managed to illegally cross from Greece into Macedonia on April 24 -- a border that has been shut since February, an AFP photographer reported.
 

Migrants in Idomeni, Greece, on the border with Macedonia, have once again blocked the railroad tracks, Skopje-based media have reported.

According to the reports quoted on Tuesday by the Beta agency, the migrants blocked the tracks again yesterday, shortly after the Greek police moved in to clear it up after 30 days of blockade.

Macedonian police fired tear gas on Wednesday to disperse around 50 migrants stranded in Greece who tried to pull down part of the razor wire fence separating the two countries, a Reuters witness said. 

Scuffles briefly broke out and Greek riot police later intervened to break up the crowd. 

Greece on April 11 lashed out at Macedonia for using "excessive force" after police fired tear gas and rubber bullets on migrants trying to breach the closed border to enter the EU.
 

Macedonian police clashed with migrants who attempted to illegally enter into Macedonia from Greece on Sunday.

The clash occurred at the Idomeni refugee camp at the Greek-Macedonian border where thousands of migrants have been stranded for weeks after the closure of the Western Balkan route.

Macedonian police used tear gas to push back hundreds of migrants from a border fence at a sprawling refugee camp on the Greek side of the frontier on April 10, a Reuters witness said. 

Bulgaria will deliver humanitarian assistance to refugees and migrants at Tabanovce transit center near Kumanovo in neighbouring  Macedonia on Thursday, the government in Sofia has said.

The aid consisting of mineral water and food supplies has been provided by the Bulgarian Red Cross and Bulgarian companies, the government press office said in a statement.

Macedonian police and army have been setting up a barbed wire fence in the last two days around a camp in Tabanovce.

Around 1,300 migrants are stranded there.

The name of a former German labor minister appears on leaflets containing maps of alternative routes to cross into Macedonia from Greece, media from both countries report.