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Refugee dies of electrocution on Greek-Macedonia border

Thursday, 03 December 2015 4:32 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 03 December 2015 6:31 PM ]

Refugees demonstrate as they block the Greek-Macedonian border near Idomeni on December 3, 2015. ©AFP

A refugee, believed to be from Morocco, has died of electrocution on the Greek-Macedonian border, where officials in Skopje recently erected a metal fence to block the entry of asylum seekers.

According to Greek police spokesman Petros Tanos, the refugee lost his life when he touched a high-voltage cable as he was scaling the carriage of a stationary train near the northern Greek border town of Idomeni.

Reports say a group of Moroccan men then carried the burnt body and rushed toward the frontier, prompting police to fire tear gas and push them back.

Another Moroccan was also fatally electrocuted on the Greek border last Saturday.

Over the weekend, Macedonia completed the construction of a three-kilometer metal fence at the border with Greece in order to control the influx of refugees into the Balkan country on their path to wealthier European states.

The move has left hundreds of refugees stranded on the Greek side of the border, which has witnessed days of clashes between police and the asylum seekers demanding entry into Macedonia.

A woman cries as refugees clash with Greek police as they wait to cross the Greek-Macedonian border near Idomeni on December 3, 2015. ©AFP

Macedonian officials are only allowing refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan to pass the border into the country. This is while all other refugees, hailing from various African and Asian countries, including a multitude of children, are left trapped at the border.

Before Macedonia, several Balkan countries, including Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia, located on the route refugees take to western and northern Europe had also adopted the same approach toward refugees.

'Very tragic'

Meanwhile, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) described the situation at the Greek-Macedonian border as “tense,” expressing regret over the Thursday death there.

“Tragically, we heard only this morning that one migrant, a Moroccan national aged 22 was killed, or died at the border trying to cross an electrocuted fence. So that’s a very tragic incident that occurred today,” said Frank Laczko, the IOM’s head of the global migration data analysis center.

Europe is struggling to cope with the unprecedented surge of refugees, fleeing war and persecution.

According to the UN, nearly 900,000 refugees have landed in Europe via the Mediterranean from Africa and Asia this year. Hundreds of the refugees, mainly from the Middle East, have died in their perilous journey to the West.

Many of the EU states have come under fire for their mistreatment of asylum seekers at the borders, where they have been grappling with dire living conditions in refugee camps.

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