ATHENS — The Macedonian police used tear gas, rubber bullets, and water cannons Sunday to disperse hundreds of migrants who tried to break through a border fence in a large refugee camp in the northern Greek town of Idomeni.
The aid agency Doctors Without Borders estimated that its volunteers treated 300 people for injuries, the Associated Press reported. They included about 200 people who had breathing problems from the gas, and 100 with cuts, bruises, and impact injuries from the nonlethal bullets.
It was the latest in a series of increasingly frequent uprisings by migrants stuck in Greece after countries sealed the main route they had been using to get to Germany.
Greek television showed migrants running from clouds of tear gas and falling to the ground as the wind blew toxic fumes into the encampment, where more than 12,000 people, mostly women and children, have been stuck for more than a month amid hopes that the border would reopen.
Tensions have been rising at migrant camps and gathering places across Greece, where more than 52,000 migrants are trapped after Balkan countries closed their borders two months ago to stem a growing flood of asylum seekers.
More than 1 million migrants entered Europe last year, prompting European politicians to radically shift their immigration policy in a bid to shut the doors to large numbers of newcomers.
Since a European Union deal with Turkey to stem Europe’s migrant crisis went into effect on March 20, requiring mass deportations of migrants who arrived from Turkey after that date, tensions have intensified.
At camps on Greek islands, deportations of migrants who crossed illegally from Turkey after the March 20 deadline began last week, setting off a wave of anxiety among migrants who fear they might be among those facing a return to Turkey or, at least, stuck in Greece for the foreseeable future.
Pope Francis is scheduled to visit the Greek island of Lesbos on Saturday in a trip aimed at highlighting the plight of migrants and offering a gesture of solidarity to those in a “difficult, dramatic situation,’’ the Vatican announced last week.
The clashes in Idomeni, which follow several confrontations there in the last month, come as members of the Greek far-right party Golden Dawn have begun marching in several areas around Greece where migrants are camped or massed at informal gathering points.
The group, whose main leaders were arrested in 2013 on charges of leading a criminal organization, had been largely silent since the migrant crisis took hold. Yet in recent days its leaders, who had since been released from custody, said the party was planning numerous protests around the country against what they warn is the “Islamization of Greece’’ by Muslim asylum seekers coming mainly from Afghanistan, Syria, and elsewhere in the Middle East.
“We cannot accept that we will become a minority in our homeland,’’ Ilias Kasidiaris, the spokesman for Golden Dawn and a member of the Greek Parliament, said in an interview late Friday. He spoke after the group held a large protest near Piraeus, the port of Athens, where nearly 5,000 migrants have been living in warehouses and pup tents for more than a month.
“Whether you call them refugees or illegals, there’s no difference — we want them out,’’ added Kasidiaris, whose party last week also threatened a group of migrants camped at the port of the Greek island of Chios.
He added that Golden Dawn aligned itself with statements made by Donald J. Trump, who had called for Muslims to be barred from the United States. “It would be a very positive development if he were to be elected president,’’ Kasidiaris said.
The clashes in Idomeni unfolded when a group of migrants acting as emissaries for those in the Idomeni camp approached the barbed-wire-topped border fence and asked the Macedonian police to open it to let them continue north. When the request was declined, the men apparently threw rocks at the police, who responded by firing tear gas at the growing crowd.
Doctors Without Borders and several other humanitarian groups in Idomeni said in statements that they were treating numerous people for injuries, including men who had been knocked unconscious, as well as children after tear gas blew into hundreds of flimsy pup tents where the migrants have been living in the mud over the last several weeks.
Under the deal that took effect last month, all migrants who arrived in Greece on or after March 20 are to be deported to Turkey. Migrants who arrived in Greece before March 20 are to have their applications processed in Greece and will not be deported to Turkey if the applications are approved.
Afghans and other migrants who were in Greece before March 20 but are unlikely to qualify for asylum in Europe can remain in Greece until their fate is decided, but if their applications are denied they will not be able to remain legally in Europe.
