Macedonia had closed its border with Greece to Afghan migrants, leaving a growing number of people stranded, Greek newspaper Kathimerini reported in its online English-language edition on Monday, citing Greek police sources.

A Macedonian police spokesperson has denied that any new ban had been introduced regarding people arriving from Afghanistan, blaming the problem on Serbia, the next nation along the so-called Balkans Route used by migrants and refugees to reach Western Europe.

Greek police have said that Macedonia had refused to let Afghans through because Serbia had made the same decision and officials feared the migrants would get stuck in Macedonia, according to ekathimerini.com.

Some 5,000 people were stuck on the border and another 4,000 arrived at Greece's Piraeus port, as Macedonia said only Syrians and Iraqis would be let in, according to the BBC.

Macedonia announced in November that it would only let through asylum seekers arriving from conflict-torn countries such as Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The step had been taken as a result of similar decisions of Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia.

On Sunday, the Serbian authorities warned the Bulgarian authorities that they that  should step up border controls to stem the flow of migrants trying to cross its western border into Serbia.

A day earlier Austria invited Bulgaria to take part in an extraordinary meeting of the ministers of the interior and foreign affairs of the countries along the Western Balkans migrant route.

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