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Roundup: Foreign journalists fined for entering Macedonia together with illegal migrants

Xinhua, March 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

Total of 72 foreign journalists were fined because they entered Macedonian territory illegally, following a bigger group of migrants from the Greek transition camp Idomeni, Macedonian Ministry of Interior announced Tuesday.

The journalists, most of them citizens of Greece and Germany, had to pay 500 euros (555 U.S. dollars) fine for the illegal crossing of the border and received a six-month ban to report from Macedonian territory, the Ministry of Interior confirmed to Xinhua. They were allowed to return to Greece only after they paid the fine.

According to the security forces a group of 1,500 migrants from Idomeni managed to walk around the security fence and enter Macedonia illegally near the village Moin. With the intervention of the police and the army, the group was stopped and the migrants were returned to Greece. Another group of 600 migrants was stopped before they entering the country territory.

The situation at the Macedonian-Greek border is escalating with an increased number of attempts for illegal crossings since the Balkan route for legal transit of the migrants is closed. The patience of almost 15,000 migrants in Idomeni is waning because they are trapped in the transition camp for days on cold and rainy weather. Additional 1,500 migrants are stuck on Macedonian territory, in the camp in Tabanovce, trying to cross from Macedonia to Serbia.

Macedonian National Security Council, a body presided by the Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov, will meet tonight to discuss the situation at the borders and the effects caused with the closing of the Balkan route. Enditem