Macedonia finishes fence at Greek border to stem flow of asylum seekers

Macedonia has finished building a fence on its frontier with Greece, becoming the latest country in Europe to build a border barrier aimed at checking the flow of asylum seekers, ABC reported.

A three-kilometer long metal fence was erected by the army at the Gevgelija crossing, on the main road north from the Greek city of Thessaloniki to Macedonia's capital Skopje on Sunday.

For the time being the fence is not being erected at other locations, but Macedonian officials did not rule out such a possibility in future.

The building of the 2.5-metre-high fence, which started on Saturday, sparked clashes between angry asylum seekers and police.

On Saturday, a group of people trying to enter Macedonia pelted the police with stones while officers fired stun grenades in their direction.

Several police and army vehicles were damaged and 18 police officers slightly injured in the protests.

A Macedonia government spokesman said earlier the fence was aimed at ensuring asylum seekers did not try to slip across the frontier undetected, without going through the checkpoint.

Sources: MENA