EU Sends Help as Migrant Chaos on Greek-Macedonian Border Escalates

Over 50,000 people have arrived in Greece since November while the European Union stands accused of not doing enough to control the humanitarian crisis on many borders across member states.

The situation has especially escalated on Greece's border with Macedonia where stranded migrants scuffle and argue with police officers who are blocking them from crossing the border, all the while around 7,000 migrant and refugees arrive by the day.

Around 1,500 migrants are stranded in squalid conditions in freezing temperatures after Macedonian authorities stopped allowing people from Pakistan, Iran, Morocco and Bangladesh cross the border. Police are only letting let people from Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan pass because they are considered to be refugees. Greece has requested tents, generators, beds and sanitary equipment and emergency first aid kits from the European Commission (EC) to help cope with the crisis.

HOPE! a stranded #migrant boy plays with a ball at a makeshift camp near the village of #Idomeni in #Greece! pic.twitter.com/10pXrqASOF

— Tamer Yazar (@tameryazar) December 4, 2015​

The EC has agreed to send supplies and deploy more border staff from its agency, Frontex, to help register the migrants on the Macedonian border. Greece has also requested immediate support from border guards.

"The scale is immense and the Commission is working very closely with the Greek authorities to assist them in this challenge," an EC statement says.