Greek police has been busing refugees out of Idomeni, with no violence reported between the migrants and the security forces. The move to accommodation in Thessaloniki is running "smoothly," according to the government.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Baltagiannis
Advertisement
The authorities had moved over 2,000 people by Tuesday night and removed some of the tents and trash using bulldozers, witnesses said.
It will take a week to relocate all of the 8,400 refugees from the camp near the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia's border, according to the Greek government. Reporters near the site have counted at least 40 buses driving the migrants away.
"It is running smoothly. The people are being moved to better camps," spokesman Giorgos Kyritsis told state radio.
Athens deployed around 700 police officers and a helicopter to clear out the sprawling settlement, with the police also forming a cordon around the camp to keep journalists out.
Some of the migrants fled to avoid relocationImage: Reuters/M. Djurica
Police and state media released footage of the migrants willingly lining up to enter the buses, carrying their belongings in large bags or piling them into pushchairs, and waving into the camera.
A small number of them, however, avoided the evacuation effort.
"The police were everywhere and it was quite scary," 50-year-old Syrian Emad Hawary, who fled the camp with his wife and two daughters, told the Associated Press news agency. "We don't want to go to a shelter. It's just another field."
'Migrants are tired'
The Idomeni camp was constructed to receive 2,000 people for a short period of time, but housed between 12,000 and 14,000 at its peak in March. Athens has been constructing alternative accommodation elsewhere in the country and urging Idomeni settlers to move.
Many migrants lived in miserable conditions for months in the hope of crossing into MacedoniaImage: Reuters/M. Djurica
Many of the refugees have spent months sleeping in the open, hoping that the Macedonian border would be reopen allowing them to continue their journey towards richer European countries such as Germany and Sweden.
On Tuesday, a police source said the relocation is "going well, perhaps better than we expected.
"The migrants are tired and no longer expect the borders to be reopened," he added.
EU member Greece is currently housing some 54,000 migrants. Over a million newcomers have passed through the country after reaching its territory from Turkey.
Idomeni: Shattered dreams and new horizons
Greek police Tuesday began clearing the overcrowded Idomeni camp, a migrant flashpoint where thousands of desperate refugees have been living for months in squalid conditions.
Image: Reuters/M. Djurica
What lies ahead?
A refugee walks through a field at sunset, a day before the makeshift camp for refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border is to be evacuated. At its height, more than 12,000 people were crammed into Idomeni, a camp originally opened by aid groups last year to accommodate 2,500 people.
Image: Reuters/K. Tsironis
An awkward feeling
A refugee boy sits in a bus waiting to be transferred to a hospitality center. In an operation that began shortly after sunrise, refugees were being moved to newly opened camps near Thessaloniki, a city about 80 kilometers to the south of Idomeni.
Image: Reuters/Y. Kolesidis
Abondoned tents being cleared
A refugee boy in a wheelchair passes in front of riot policemen. By midday Tuesday, 23 buses carrying some 1,110 people had left Idomeni. Meanwhile, earth-moving machinery is being used to clear abandoned tents. No violence has been reported so far.
Image: Reuters/Y. Kolesidis
Shattered hopes
Refugees and migrants board buses to be transferred to government camps. Earlier on Monday, Giorgos Kyritsis, Greek government’s migration spokesman, said the operation to clear all 8,400 people living in the Idomeni camp would take at least 10 days.
Image: Reuters/O. Teofilovski
Operation proceeding “very smoothly”
Police stand next to an armored vehicle parked on a railway track during the operation to evacuate the makeshift camp. According to representatives of Doctors Without Borders, the operation is proceeding "very smoothly". Journalists are barred during the evacuation operation. An estimated 700 police are participating in the operation.
Image: Reuters/O. Teofilovski
Taking their chances
A group of men run through a field to avoid being transferred to government camps. Over the past two weeks, Greek officials have managed to convince some 2,500 people to leave Idomeni voluntarily. But many are wary of relocating to organized camps away from the border because it could be harder to find smuggling contacts.
Image: Reuters/M. Djurica
Interests surpass humanity
People walk past tents at a train station in Idomeni. Greek authorities are also eager to reopen this railway line – the country's main freight line to the Balkans - that runs through the camp and had been blocked by protesting camp residents since March 20.
Image: Reuters/M. Djurica
Most residents women and children
Officials have said that 6,000 spots are available at reception centers and that most of the migrants are to be moved to camps at former industrial facilities near Thessaloniki. Many of the camp's residents are women and children desperate to be reunited with male relatives who, with the aid of human smugglers, have forged ahead on their own.
