November 26 (SeeNews) - Protests by migrants have blocked the Greek-Macedonian border, forcing companies transporting goods between Greece's Mediterranean ports and Central Europe to take a detour via Bulgaria, Sofia-based media reported on Thursday.
The route through Bulgaria takes 15 hours more and entails additional costs for the transport companies, state owned radio broadcaster BNR said.
Currently, 120 railway carriages loaded with goods are stuck on both sides of the border, it added.
The Skopje-Thessaloniki railway line has been blocked for two weeks by migrants from Africa and the Middle East who are not allowed to cross the border and move north to Central Europe.
Last week Greek media reported that riot police on the Macedonian border pushed back thousands of migrants trying to cross over, after Macedonia blocked access to people deemed to be economic migrants and not refugees. Several hundred Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis crossed the border last Friday before police halted the flow again to ease congestion on the Macedonia side, leaving several thousand on the Greek side.
Following the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris, which claimed 129 lives and left 368 people wounded, the countries along the Western Balkan migrant corridor tightened border control and closed their borders for economic migrants. The move prompted international aid agencies to say there is an urgent need for additional migrant reception capacity along the Western Balkans migrant corridor.