Member states of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie

Greece says Macedonia is no longer allowing migrants to enter the country on their way to Central and Western Europe, ABC news reports.

Skopje officials did not immediately comment, but Athens maintains the border has effectively been sealed off to migrants for several days.

Macedonian police has used tear gas to push back illegal migrants who tried to storm through the country's border with Greece on Wednesday.

Tirana and Skopje have reached an agreement aimed at ending an ongoing dispute over lengthy phytosanitary checks on Albanian fresh produce at the Macedonian border, following intense diplomatic negotiations over the past two days.

Frontex has reported a total of 1.2 million illegal border crossings at the EU's external borders in the first ten months of this year, which is four times the 282 000 recorded for the whole of 2014.

More than 540 000 migrants have arrived on the Greek islands between January and October, which was 13 times more than in the same period last year.

27 countries have voted in favor of the Albanian initiative to recommend Pristina to be allowed to join UNESCO, among them Montenegro and Macedonia.

According to the Frontier Statistical Survey conducted by the Bank of Greece, in the period January-June of 2015, arrivals of non-residents from abroad increased by 20,8%, compared with the corresponding period of the year 2014.

The Eurobasket 2015 countdown between Greek players and their adversaries from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) proved a success for Greece but was marred by provocative acts by Skopje. They held flags carrying Greek smbols and yelled out “Macedonia” , lifting up a banner stating “Kick Hell-Ass” during the Greek national anthem.

Defence Minister Nikolay Nenchev said on Monday the Army is sending 25 troops and the relevant equipment to help police guard the border with Serbia in view of increased migrant influx into Bulgaria's western neighbour.

Macedonian riot police used tear gas and stun grenades on Friday as thousands of migrants tried to enter the country from Greece, Sky News reported.

About 1,000 migrants from the Middle East were early on Friday waiting in Gevgelija to continue their journey to Serbia, and then to the EU.

Several hundred of them, mostly refugees from Syria, were spending the night next to the railway tracks at the rail station in this town near the Macedonia-Greece border.